Taholah’s boys and girls basketball teams will head to Chehalis on Saturday with aspirations of a trip to Spokane the following week.

The Chitwhin boys (18-3) will face Riverside Christian of Yakima (13-10) in a regional Class 1B contest scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday at Chehalis High School.

Taholah’s girls (16-5) will follow their male counterparts onto the court, taking on Northwest Yeshiva of Mercer Island (17-10) at 8 p.m.

Both games are winner-to-state, loser-out affairs, with the survivors advancing to state Feb. 28 at Spokane.

Boasting two players averaging in double figures, Riverside Christian will be one of the toughest tests Taholah’s boys will face this season.

The Crusaders will bring a lot of size to the table. They have four 6-footers listed on their roster, including Levi Rivera who is leading the team with 17.9 points a game.

Rivera will be providing points in the paint primarily but has also been known to stretch his game out to mid-range. He has not proven to be a particularly effective 3-point shooter.

Reagan Haas is second on the team in scoring and is averaging nearly 15 points per game, but the talented guard does most of his work getting to the rim and hitting his free throws.

The Chitwhins have been relying heavily on Zach Cain to provide their offense this season. Cain is the leading scorer with 23.5 points a game but Taholah’s offense has benefited from wide range of contributors.

Cain is one of just four Chitwhins averaging in double figures with the team regularly getting scoring from Jesse Purdy, James Orozco and Jayson Mowitch.

In advance of their first game of regionals Taholah head coach Mike Rose said he doesn’t want to change too much with a team that has been performing at a high level all season.

“We’ve been working on our free throws and I thought we were pretty good coming down the stretch against Naselle (in Saturday’s district title game),” he said. “Other than that, we’re just trying to keep everybody healthy and sharp.”

Taholah’s girls will have to bounce back from its loss to Columbia Adventist in the district championship game to face to face an unfamiliar opponent with a star player that will be hard to stop.

The Chitwhins have done a good job of clogging up the lane with their zone defense and some size of their own but few teams have had success stopping Northwest Yeshiva’s Tamar Jacobson.

Jacobson has been a problem in the post for the opposition all year and is leading the team with 24.2 points a game. She has also been cleaning the glass too, averaging 13.5 rebounds a game.

Jacobson’s game also extends beyond the key as she has been known to hit a mid-range jumper or two along with a few open three pointers. She actually leads the team with 13 made threes but the 613s (the nickname for the orthodox Jewish school is based on the number of commandments they serve) aren’t known for their range from beyond the arc.

While the 613s have most of their offense coming from one player, the Chitwhins are a little more balanced.

Denise Curleybear is the starting point for the Chitwhins offense as she is responsible for taking the ball up court while averaging 15 points a game but the junior point guard has a little help.

Netty Mail has put up strong numbers this season has put up just over 12 points a game. Mail and Curleybear both do a lot of their work in the paint but the 613s won’t make life at the rim easy for Taholah.

Head coach Karl Braden said he wants to make sure his team is in better shape after tiring late in the last game.

“I take full responsibility, we should be in better shape,” he said. “Conditioning is one of our biggest issues.”