Royal boys take down Ki-Be

ROYAL CITY - Royal High School exploded in the third quarter to knock off SCAC-East leading Kiona-Benton, 61-36, in the regular season's final boys basketball game.

"Fantastic game," coach Pete Christensen said. "I'd like to bottle it up and use it again."

That would be a good idea. The next outing for the Knights will be at state power Zillah Thursday in the first round of the SCAC district tournament.

That game will start at 7 p.m. The next game will be on Saturday against either Naches or Ki-Be, site and time to be determined.

Royal and Ki-Be were in a tight game until Ki-Be's big man had to leave the game with four fouls in the first half. The tenacity of the Bears' defense changed.

"Once he got two fouls, we started attacking him," coach Christensen said. "He could no longer be aggressive.

Royal rolled to a 24-7 third quarter to blow open the half-time score of 24-23. Ki-Be was unable to recover, and Royal took the third period, 13-7.

"We played great defense and an unselfish offense," coach Christensen said. "Things really went well once we started making the extra passes."

It was a great game for the players. Royal was able to get all of them into the game with plenty of time to share.

Three Knights scored in double figures. Kaden Jenks and Teddy Mead scored 12 points each, and Aaron Johnson put down 10. There were nine more from Riley Lefler.

Mead led the rebounders with eight caroms. Chase Christensen, Austin Walz and Lefler got six each.