YAKIMA, Wash. – Zillah boys basketball coach Marion Mengarelli will take the victory.

The heart-stopping endings? Yeah, he can do without those.

The fourth-seeded Leopards ran their state winning streak to seven games Thursday at the Yakima Valley SunDome, beating No. 6 Seton Catholic 61-59 on Memphis Jones’ putback as time expired in a Class 1A quarterfinal. It’s the second straight white-knuckler in state play for Zillah.

In the tournament final a year ago, two-time conference player of the year Dekker Van De Graaf followed his own badly missed 3-pointer with a floating bank shot that lifted the Leopards past Annie Wright 47-45 to cap a 27-0 season with their third title since 2017.

“I think that’s a bad habit,” Mengarelli said. “I’d like to get out of that habit, but the final score is what mattered – we found a way.”

And it figured it would be Jones, who continues to become a force.

The 6-foot-5 junior scored 21 points on 10-for-14 shooting and hauled in eight rebounds. Jones also drew the defensive assignment on Seton Catholic star sophomore Kaiden Wilson.

Wilson scored 25 points but needed 27 shots to reach the total.

“I just keep working, going at (Dekker) in practice,” Jones said. “Every single practice we go at it and it’s bettering each other.”

That the Leopards needed the heroics was a bit of a concern. Zillah led by 20 points late in the third quarter.

“I preach, preach, preach that we have to play to win rather than play not to lose,” Mengarelli said. 

“Once we figure that out and can stay in attack mode, I truly believe in this team.”

After Seton Catholic knotted the score 59-59, the Leopards worked the ball around before River 

Buck took a jump shot that rimmed, setting up Jones.

The ball hung on the rim for what Zillah assistant coach Erick Delp joked was 14 seconds before dropping. The Cougars were unable to get a shot off before the horn.

“It felt like forever, it was swirling around, and I was like, ‘please go in,’” Jones.

The Leopards and top-seeded Annie Wright meet again at 7:15 p.m. Friday, with the winner advancing to the 5 p.m. final Saturday.