YAKIMA – So dominant was the second-seeded Zillah girls basketball team’s 60-24 victory against No. 8 Lakeside in the Class 1A state quarterfinals that you had to comb the box score to find the flaws.

Shooting? Nah, 60% from the field, 45.5% and 72% from the free throw is elite.

Defense? Nope. The Leopards limited Lakeside to less than 18% shooting, even worse from 3-point land.

Rebounding? Zillah won the battle of the boards 36-27 but gave up 15 on the offensive glass. Not great, but can partially be explained by the random caroms of badly missed shots by the Eagles.

Turnovers? Wait, Turnovers. And there it is, the one area of Thursday’s game that Zillah coach Joel Yellow Owl can harp on ahead of the Leopards semifinal against No. 3 seed Lynden Christian at 9 p.m. Friday.

“You can’t have those against better teams,” Yellow Owl said of the turnovers. “It’s easy to get sloppy with stuff because things are coming easy, we’re getting easy ones off our press.”

The Lyncs (23-3) definitely fall into the ‘better team’ category. They have 14 state championships, and are in the semifinals for the eighth straight tournament.

Meanwhile, it’s the first trip to the state semifinals for the Leopards (24-2) since 2015, and they haven’t been to the championship game in 50 years, when there were just two classifications.

They scored an early knockout Thursday to get there. Up seven late in the first quarter, Bella Valadez knocked down three straight 3-pointers and the rout was on. She added a trey later in the game, finishing with 14 points.

“She’s been struggling beyond the arc,” Yellow owl said. “She had a tough one in the regional round, but today, talking to her, I told her it’s just like riding a bike.”’

While Valadez got hot on the outside, SCAC MVP Makenna Klitzke was doing damage inside.

She connected on 7 of 10 shots, and tallied a game-high 20 points, and also grabbed 10 rebounds.

“We ran the first one for her because we want her presence down low,” Yellow Owl said. “When she gets going down low, it opens it up for everyone else.”

June Fiander had a solid all-around game with eight points, five rebounds and four of the team’s seven steals.

One advantage the Leopards could have Friday night is fresher legs. While Yellow Owl was able to rest his starters with leads that nearly triggered the running clock, the Lyncs beat Annie Wright in double overtime Thursday night.

That’s the equivalent of five quarters.

Still, the first-year Zillah coach knows beating Lynden Christian will take a cleaner game than the victory against Lakeside.

“They’re not a team that is going to give you it, you’re going to have to go take it,” he said. “I think our girls are ready for it.”

Added Klitzke: “That’s going to be a tough one, but we just have to keep fighting.”