YAKIMA – Three years ago, Annie Wright stars Jeremiah Harshman, Martin Kaupanger and Reggie Lester were wide-eyed freshmen, newbies to state and the Yakima Valley SunDome.

Saturday night they left champions, having guided top-seeded Annie Wright to its first state championship in only the fifth full year of the program.

“The community of Annie Wright is really close and we’ve been a part of this since our freshman year,” said Martin Kaupanger, who is bound for Indiana State. “We all decided we’re going to take a lesser role. Everybody can step up on any night, it just depends on how they guard us.”

After Kaupanger had the game-high in the quarterfinal (11 points) and Lester topped the scoring in Friday’s semifinal (17), it was Harshman’s turn.

The point guard, who was voted the tournament MVP scored 20 points on 8-for-15 shooting, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out four assists.

Harshman said the team felt there was some unfinished business because of last year’s title game loss, when Zillah stunned the Gators on Dekker Van De Graaf’s last-second soaring putback of his own badly missed 3-pointer.

“It feels great, we put in a lot of hard work,” “We definitely should’ve won last year, so we’ve had a chip on our shoulder all year, we played through adversity and fought, and probably had the toughest schedule in the state of Washington.”

The Gators (24-2) lost just once to an in-state opponent (3A state-qualifier Bellevue), and held its own in a top tournament in Portland.

This week, they left little doubt, smothering No. 7 in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, avenged last March’s title loss by going on a 21-2 second half run to pull away from Zillah to set up Saturday.

Kaupanger added 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked four shots. 

Gannon Dykstra had 10 points and Gunnar Dykstra added nine for the Lyncs (24-4), who were seeking their eighth championship.

Third/fifth: No. 5 Zillah 75, No. 2 Royal 70 (OT)

Fourth/sixth: No. 7 Meridian 59, No. 9 Chelan 48

GIRLS

CHAMPIONSHIP

No. 2 Bellevue Christian 55, No. 4 King's 37

YAKIMA, Wash. – After 18 trips to the state tournament, Bellevue Christian’s girls have a state championship.

The second-seeded Vikings used a balanced scoring attack and a big fourth quarter to beat No. 4 King’s 55-37 late Saturday afternoon in the Yakima Valley SunDome. 

Kiana Skogstad scored a game-high 15 points for BC, which outscored the Knights 20-3 in the final period. The Vikings used a 21-1 run to break away in what had been a tight game with five lead changes.

Rocklyn Osborn and Olivia Reynolds each had 11 points for Bellevue Christian, and Lili Meisner chipped in 10. Osborn added a game-best 12 rebounds.

King’s Kaleo Anderson, whose buzzer-beating 3-pointer Friday night against top-seeded Lynden Christian, was held to 13 points, 10 below her season average.

The Vikings’ best finish before Saturday had been a second-place trophy in 2006.

BC (25-2) won the rebounding battle 33-26 and blocked five shots.

Eleanor Gaydos had nine points, and Cat Ellard added eight points and five rebounds for the Knights (20-8).

Third/fifth: No. 1 Lynden Christian 50. Annie Wright 36

Fourth/sixth: Zillah 64, Naches Valley 53