YAKIMA – No. 8 seed Seattle Christian came out firing in the first quarter of Saturday’s Class 1A state regional against top-seeded Zillah.

The Warriors led by as many as eight midway through the first quarter, looking like they were ready to give the undefeated Leopards all they could handle. 

But just like last week's SCAC district championship game against Royal, Zillah stayed the course and battled back for a 64-55 win at Davis High School.

The Leopards are headed to the quarterfinals for the fifth straight tournament. They’ll play at 10:15 a.m. Thursday against the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 7 Chelan and 10th-seeded Cascade Christian.

“There’s going to be adversity every game, but we just have to push through it and keep going,” said senior Memphis Jones, who finished with nine points, including a key and-one down the stretch. “We knew they were going to have their run, but we had to get through it and go on our own big run and take over the game.”

After tying the score at 19 at the end of one, the Leopards promptly went on a 15-0 run in the second quarter to take a 34-21 lead/

Zillah (24-0 overall) maintained an 11-point advantage through three quarters, but Seattle Christian wasn’t going to go away, cutting the lead to five with a 6-0 run to start the fourth. Saenz hit four straight free throws to stem the tide, but the Warriors trimmed the lead to 57-51 with just four minutes remaining.

That’s when the Leopards’ defense took over, resulting in a series of fast breaks, including one with 3:30 left when Budda Aranda found Jones under the basket for the hoop and the harm.

Once the lead was back to 10, the Leopards did what they had to do to finish it off.

“We just need to stick with our game plan and keep working hard, and good things will come,” Jones said. “If we can just keep our heads focused and stay locked in, we feel like we can keep it going.” 

Fellow senior Dekker Van De Graaf scored 17, while Jayden Saenz, X Castilleja and Aranda chipped in nine points apiece. Grant Collier led the Warriors with a game-high 18 points, Sam Althoff scored 17 and Dakota O’Hare added 14.