There are times Zillah seniors Dekker Van de Graaf and Memphis Jones just can’t stand each other.

Not in a king-of-the-playground sense, but more of a tough-love feeling.

The top two scorers on the Leopards’ top-ranked boys basketball team often push each other so much in practice, they’re not too friendly afterward.

“Sometimes we can’t talk to each other after practice, it’s that intense,” the 6-foot-5 Van de Graaf said. “And that’s the intensity we need to make each other better. It’s one of those things where iron sharpens iron.”

After a week off following an opening weekend in which they beat Prosser and Grandview, Zillah began SCAC play Saturday evening, rolling at Wahluke 89-55.

Jones had 26 points and Van de Graaf had 11. Jayden Saenz (12 points) and X Castilleja (11) also were in double figures. With that scoring depth – which also includes Budda Aranda, a versatile transfer from Wapato – it’s small wonder why the Leopards sit atop VarsityWA’s rankings after finishing third at state a year ago.

Zillah coach Mario Mengarelli, appreciated and understands the rankings, but also is cautious of taking polls in December too seriously.

“I always take the rankings with a grain of salt, we’re a very talented group and I like what we have, but we have to play our best basketball at the end of February and the start of March,” Mengarelli said. “It’s cool that they respect us, and I believe in my guys, but there’s a lot of work that has to be done and a lot that has to go our way.”

Van de Graaf has been impactful since his freshman season, and was the leading scorer of the Leopards championship team as a sophomore at 22.3 points per contest.

His average dipped slightly last season (21.7), but he grew as a leader and player.

“I think it’s really hard for kids who have a very good freshman year to continually get better every year,” Mengarelli said. “I think Dekker has done that. Obviously, he is yet to play his senior year, but if you look at his body, he’s put on about 15 pounds of muscle and that can only help him.”

Van de Graaf is OK sharing the load, and is ready to be more of an on-the-court extension of Mengarelli.

“Just instilling what the upperclassmen did when I was a freshman,” the reigning two-time SCAC MVP said. “Just like our coach, he’s always pushing us to be our best, but you can’t always be nice about it.”

Jones, also 6-5, made a leap from his sophomore year to last season after graduation took a good chunk of the scoring.

His average jumped from 2.5 points per game to more than 13 a contest.

“Coming off my sophomore year, having all those seniors pushing me to do better, I knew how to take that next step,” Jones said. “What they were to me, I hope to be that to the underclassmen, too.”

Fourth-ranked Royal figures to be the Zillah’s top competition atop the conference. The Knights and Leopards split their two regular-season meetings and two more in the postseason, with Royal winning the district championship matchup and Zillah taking the game for third and fifth place at state.

Tim Ravet, who guided Kittitas’ boys to three straight 2B championships and led Ellensburg’s girls to the 2A final three years in a row with a title in 2023, takes Royal’s reins.

All-conference junior Grant Wardenaar, the quarterback of the Knights’ championship football team, returns and scored 42 in Saturday’s season-opening win against Connell.

Mengarelli said that his team’s depth could be the deciding factor against the Knights, and other top teams.

“We have a lot of guys who can score,” he said. “It’s just us learning to play off each other and play the right way that will make us very dangerous.”