ZILLAH, Wash. – Pardon the second-ranked Zillah girls basketball team if they were a little late to focus in on Saturday’s key SCAC matchup with No. 9 Royal.

Less than four days removed from stopping 2A contender Deer Park’s 68-game regular-season winning streak to wrap up the SunDome Shootout, the Leopards might’ve been basking in their history-wrecking victory.

Once locked in, however, Zillah took care of business, beating the Knights 55-39 at Zillah Alumni Gymnasium. The victory, along with the victory over the Stags and CBBN hopeful West Valley in the SunDome, and Napavine’s upending of this week’s No. 1 could send the Leopards to the top of the 1A poll.

Scary since Zillah is still working a couple new players, including Kennewick all-league transfer June Finader, into the mix under first-year coach Joel Yellow Owl.

“It’s really tough coming off a couple high-emotional wins at the SunDome,” Yellow Owl said. “Once we got our emotions under control, and kind of got the nerves out of the way, and got back to our defensive principles of who we are, we made them have to make the adjustments.”

The Knights, paced by freshman Lauren Wardenaar and her seven first quarter points, scored the first five points of the game and led 16-9 after the first quarter.

After that, the Leopards clamped down, holding Royal to single digits the final three quarters.

Zillah also got going on the offensive end, with leading scorer Makenna Klitzke finishing with a team-high 16 points after being held scoreless in the opening period, and hauling in 11 rebounds.

Angelina Buck added 14, and Fiander had 13, capping her night by drilling her lone 3-point attempts.

Playing in just her second game, the former Lions standout saw more minutes a

“We’re smoothly transitioning her in,” said Yellow Owl, commending the defensive effort of junior Paige Favilla, who has rotated with Fiander in the backcourt. “She’s going to be one of our go-to players, but she’s still learning some things, but when the time is right it will come together.”

The Leopards improved to 6-0 in conference play and 9-1 overall, and visit College Place on Tuesday.

Royal (3-2, 8-2), which got 15 points from Wardenaar and Briana Cedillo's 13 points and 12 rebounds, looks to continue its stellar start Tuesday when Naches Valley visits the Slope.