Girls' youth basketball places second in league tournament

They took silver, but La Conner Middle School players in the Skagit-Whatcom-Island-Snohomish-Hoops league girls' basketball tournament here Saturday were good as gold in the eyes of coaches Robert Hancock and Jamie Lam.

The local team, comprised of seventh graders, advanced through a double-elimination bracket before falling to an eighth-grade entry in the finals of the SWISH championship tourney.

La Conner got off to a strong start with a convincing 42-20 win over Sedro-Woolley.

"I think this group has a pretty good story," Hancock told the Weekly News. "We started as third graders in a fourt...