YAKIMA — It’s been so long since the Royal girls have played in the 1A state tournament that none of the players on the Yakima Valley SunDome court this week were even alive the last time it happened.

Now, the No. 5 seed Knights are two wins away from reaching the top of the mountain after taking down last year’s champion, Bellevue Christian, 51-42, in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

“This is the first time since 2001 that we’ve been to state, and the first time since 1996 that we will be playing for a trophy,” Royal head coach Farrah Wardenaar said. “Our goal coming here was to play on trophy day, and we’re going to. That’s a really big deal for us.”

Junior Graycie Kast led all scorers with 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to pace the Knights, who closed out the game on a 16-7 run after the game was tied through three quarters. She led a 10-2 surge to start the final stanza, including a 3-pointer with 2:25 remaining to stake Royal to a 10-point lead.

Freshman teammate Lauren Wardenaar added 13 points and senior Brianna Cedillo had eight, including a key putback with a minute to play to halt a brief comeback by the sixth-seeded Vikings.

“Our game plan was to keep passing the ball around and trying to get some open threes,” Kast said. “We also thrive off of transition and getting easy buckets down low, and we were finally able to do that in the fourth quarter.”

Kast admitted she wasn’t even aware that the Knights were playing the defending state champions.

“To me, they were just another team that we had to beat,” she said. “But now that I know, that’s pretty cool.”

The Knights will have their hands full in Friday’s semifinals against No. 1 King’s, which defeated Seton Catholic, 54-36, on Thursday.

Kast and her teammates aren’t intimidated by what lies ahead. They just want to keep their dream season rolling for two more games.

“We’re just trying to have fun on the court and control what we can control,” she said. “We can only worry about what we’re doing — our energy and our effort.”

Coach Wardenaar agrees that the Knights have more to prove this weekend after playing a rugged regular season schedule to prepare them for this moment.

“We have a fun group and I feel like we’re in a really good place,” she said. “Our girls all get along and they all like each other. Not every team can say that this late in the season. And I think you can see that in how we play.”