Zillah boys slowly overcome to come to the state quarter -finals | Preparation sports

Eight days, which were from an extremely unforgettable second half, the Zillah boys kept their foot to the pedal on Saturday afternoon and are now in a rather familiar place.

At half-time, the Leopards ran the number 5 King's 69-44 with the fourth seed in the opening round of class 1a at Davis High and won a quarter-finals in Sundome next week.

Zillah took the short journey to Sundome 13 tournaments in a row and brought 11 trophies home, three of these championships.

“The Leps are the Leps in the dome,” said Zillah coach Mario Mengarelli, who led the Leopards in seven tournaments, including last year, to three championships.

In order to get there, Zillah had to rinse the bad taste that was left by defeat against Royal against Royal in District 5 championship game after led 23 points at halftime.

“We had to persist what we do, obviously we got tight last week and I could see that this tightness came out in the first half,” said Mengarelli. “But when we saw that the ball went through a few times, it really helped us.”

Early fights slowed down the two-time SCAC player of the year Dekker Van de Graaf, who had six points in the first half, and almost every Leopard icer Memphis Jones.

The 6-foot 5 junior scored the first nine points from Zillah in 4-against-4 shooting in the first four minutes and scored 21 points, 14 of them before the break.

“We always had the feeling that Memphis had a non -agreement, so we wanted to shoot the ball well early and often and luckily,” said Mengarelli.

It was the fourth time this season that Jones scored more than 20 points.

“It just felt good,” said the all-Scac selection of the first team. “We worked on the zone (offensive) from above to key, so I just shot the ball and it felt good.”

After the break, Jones's teammates found their reach and climbed into the fourth quarter for a seven point lead and drove from there.

Jayden Saenz joined all 15 of his points in the second half and dropped three 3 points, and Van de Graaf scored 11 from his 17 after the break 11.

Xavier Castilleja added 10 points for Zillah, eight after half -time.

“I always tell you that we have to play the likelihood,” said Mengarelli. “We have to get great pictures offensive and force them defensively to take hard and it will make its way outside.”

Zillah improved to 20: 4 and won the 13th time in the 14 games to beat King's for the second time this season. The Leopards enforced the 18: 2 of the knight in the fourth of his 57:39 win at the Sundome Shootout.

King's (18-5) had won 14 out of 15 games, with the last defeat against the triple defending champion in class 2a, Lynden.

Zillah will rose against the winner of Seton Catholic No. 6 and 11. Seed Cashmere on Thursday at 12:15 p.m.

The Leopards defeated the Bulldogs twice this season in the SCAC game.

King's meets No. 12 Bellevue Christian at 7.15 p.m. on Wednesday in a losing competition. The Vikings displaced Fort Vancouver 61-48 in an opening game on Friday evening.

King – Cooper 6. Needham 0, Asinobi 3. Colton Adams 15, Bjella 0, Serbig 9, Steen 0, McGowan 2. Total 15-39 12-14 44.

Zillah – Jayden Saenz 15, Caldaza 0, Mamizuka 0, Curfman 0, Memphis 21, Buck 6, X Castilleja 10, Dekker van de Graaf 17. Total 28-58 5-9 69.

Königs = 18 = 8 = 9 = – = 44

Zillah = 13 = 17 = 27 = – = 69

Jerrel Swenning is a long-time former sports editor of the Yakima Herald Republic.