YAKIMA – A few minutes of furious comeback couldn’t make up for three quarters of misfires and miscues Saturday afternoon for the Royal boys basketball team.

The Class 1A third seed fell to No. 6 King’s, 48-47, in the battle of Knights at Davis High School.

Royal falls into a Wednesday play-in, where 11th-seeded Overlake, a 64-56 winner over Elma, awaits.

A 12:15 p.m. Thursday quarterfinal against an opponent to be determined Wednesday awaits for the Shoreline school.

King’s not only held the Knights to a season-low out put for basketball, the Emerald Sound co-champs’ effort bettered all but three football teams that lost to Royal on its road to a sixth straight championship.

Coach Joe Stack credited his King’s players for gumming it up for an offense that averaged more than 74 points per game before Saturday.

“Our guys paid attention to the scout, and their preparation is what gave them an opportunity to win today,” Stack said. “Credit to those guys in the locker room, it has nothing to do with me.”

Despite its struggles, Royal had a chance.

After trailing by as many as 17 points in the third quarter, Royal whittled the deficit to eight – 48-40 – with just more than 2 minutes left to go in the contest.

Junior Dax Jenks sank a 3-pointer to trim the lead to five, and a minute later conference Player of the Year Grant Wardenaar converted a three-point play to pull Royal within two.

After a defensive stop, Royal had a chance to tie or take the lead with 15.9 seconds remaining, but was unable to get a shot off with just a few seconds left.

King’s tried a long pass, but Jenks intercepted the heave and called a timeout.

Following a deflected pass, Royal reset with 1.6 seconds left.

Freshman Graham Palmer took a pass, but was fouled with 0.2 left on the clock. He sank the first but the second rimmed off.

“We were flat on defense and not shooting the ball well, those are bad ingredients,” Royal coach Tim Ravet said. “Those are the kind of ingredients you get beat on.”

Wardenaar finished with a game-high 29 points before fouling out in the final minute.

No other player had more than six points for Royal, which committed 18 turnovers, and couldn’t knock down plenty of open looks.

“All the timing was off, we just didn’t have that feeling,” said Ravet, whose team fell to 21-4. Royal’s previous three losses were to top-seeded Zillah, including a pair of last-second defeats.

Drew Evans topped King’s with 14 points, 12 of those coming on jumper from the corner. Andrew Gerbig added 13.

King’s (18-6) is the quarterfinals for the 13thstraight tournament, with 12 top-six trophies and three championships to show for its efforts.

“Nothing is more fun than sitting in the Dome knowing you get to play the next day,” Stack said.