Royal boys take on Meridian in first round of Class 1A state basketball

ROYAL CITY — While both teams are on their way to the Yakima Sundome, the Royal High School boys basketball team will take on Meridian (Bellingham) on Friday to determine who will be guaranteed two more games in the state tournament. 

Both the Knights and the Trojans will advance to the round of 12 at the Sundome, but the loser of Friday’s game will have to play and win Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals Thursday. 

Royal coach Greg Jenks said he’s impressed by what he’s seen of Meridian. 

“It doesn’t take long watching film of Meridian before you’re (saying), ‘This is the seventh seed?’ They look like a top-four team,” he said.  

Tipoff is at 8 p.m. at Ellensburg High School, 1203 E. Capitol Ave.  

Royal earned its second seed in the tournament with a wild and crazy 73-59 win over South Central Athletic Conference rival Zillah on Feb. 21.  

“The people that went (to the game) - they will never forget it.” Jenks said.  

The Knights got off to a very rocky start, falling a long way behind and struggling to catch up.  

“It was 31 to 4 (in the first quarter),” Jenks said. “With three and a half minutes left in the third quarter, it was still a 26-point deficit.”  

It was the third meeting of the season for Zillah and Royal; each had defeated the other at home. Jenks said the Knights weren’t ready early on.  

“I believe the adrenaline was so high that it affected our decision making on both offense and defense,” Jenks said, while Zillah was rebounding and shooting well.  

Things changed midway through the third quarter.  

“Everything flipped,” he said. “In those three and a half minutes (at the end of the third quarter) we got the lead down to 12.”  

The Knights found their game; Zillah started making the mistakes Royal had been making, Jenks said. 

“It really just flipped,” he said. “What flipped it? I’m still trying to figure what did.” 

One of the keys, he said, was that Royal players didn’t give up even in the middle of a bad game. 

“The boys kept on believing and kept on working, and we were able to start playing our style ball as far as getting out to the open floor. We were able to get some fast breaks, we were getting a few steals.” 

The Knights’ shooting improved; so did their defense.  

“We were just making better decisions. We got three (3-point shots) in the third quarter — we didn’t have any in the first half. We had to change up defenses; we had to start doing some pressing and we got some turnovers that led to some easy baskets,” Jenks said.  

Now Royal must concentrate on the next game, against a team that is one of the top eight in the 1A classification in the state.  

“We’ve got to move on,” Jenks said. “I thought we had a good practice (Monday), which tells me (the players) are moving on.”  

Meridian has a frontcourt with a lot of height, Jenks said, with at least one player that’s scored more than 30 points in multiple games. 

“We’ve placed some really good players this year, so we feel like we’ve got the game plan that will work. It’ll be a team effort,” Jenks said. 

    The Royal boys basketball team will take to the floor Friday in its first state basketball game.