Royal girls dominate in win, take league title

ROYAL CITY — The Royal girls basketball team dominated from the opening tip, taking a 75-25 win over the Wahluke girls Friday.

The Knights had already clinched the league title for the east half of the South Central Athletic Conference, and coach Farrah Wardenaar said her research showed it’s been a while between titles.

“The last time the girls won League was 1988,” she said. “I’m fairly certain this is only the third time. (Royal) won in 1978, 1988 and 2024. So it’s been a long time coming.”

Royal had a 26-5 lead at the end of the quarter and a 55-11 lead at the half. Wahluke coach Everado Corrales said the Warriors had trouble solving Royal’s press early in the game and never managed to catch up once they got behind.

“We lacked the energy tonight. We had no energy whatsoever,” Corrales said. “We came out super-flat. And that pretty much sums it all up.

“We couldn’t battle back because we dug ourselves a hole so deep. We tried to get something going, and then — you score about six or seven points and you’d go down by 10 more. It was just a never-ending battle,” Corrales said.

Wardenaar said that after some initial skepticism, her team decided they could win the league title, and went after it. 

“We told them this was something in their sights,” she said. “They didn’t really (consider it), you’ve been in the program so long, and you’ve never been league champs. We went out and we beat College Place twice, and they were the team for us to beat. And at that point, we just got a lot of momentum and they started believing it was something they could accomplish. And they did.”

The Warriors had a play-in game to qualify for the district tournament Monday night. Corrales said he was encouraged by the play of his freshmen and sophomores on Friday. 

“The future is bright, because that second unit was all freshmen and sophomores. And they handled themselves pretty well. They were composed — they didn’t get rattled a whole lot,” he said.

Royal will host its first district tournament game Tuesday against Toppenish, Wardenaar said.

“As the first seed, we will host the first two district games,” she said. “That’s a great advantage for us.”

Two SCAC teams advance to the state tournament, and Wardenaar said the challenge is pretty steep. Wapato is ranked third in the state, and Zillah is ranked seventh. 

“The SCAC west — they’re all good,” she said. “So we’ve got to take it game by game, really get focused.”

Wardenaar said she thinks the Knights have a good chance.

“I think finishing first puts us in the best situation possible for our team,” she said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.

    Yohary Magana (11) of Wahluke turns the corner on a drive during the Warriors’ loss to Royal.
  

    Royal’s Audrey Bergeson (23) puts back a rebound in the Knights’ game with Wahluke.
  

    The league champion Royal Knights celebrate their title. Coach Farrah Wardenaar said it was the first time Royal won a league championship since 1988.