YAKIMA — Somewhere, Brandie Valadez is smiling.

The late Zillah girls basketball coach, who roamed the sidelines 13 years for her beloved Leopards, shared a final wish with her players before she passed away last summer.

As her daughter Bella recounted with tears dripping down her cheeks, Coach Valadez delivered one last challenge to her players before she succumbed to cancer.

“Right before she passed, she said, ‘Go out and win the gold ball for us,’” Bella said. “And we did that.”

Behind 25 points from June Fiander, 10 each from Angie Buck and Makenna Klitzke, and a trio of 3-pointers from Valadez, the Leopards accomplished something that had never happened in program history on Saturday night in the Yakima Valley SunDome.

The black and orange brought home the gold ball.

“She would be hugging us all right now,” Bella Valadez said after Zillah's 63-51 victory over top-seeded King’s. “She would be so proud.”

Klitzke said she and her teammates have been on a mission to win one for Brandie. After their 13th victory in a row Saturday night, the Leopards can confidently say that they played their best basketball when it mattered most.

“We were playing for Brandie, and this is what she would have wanted,” said Klitzke, who earned a spot on the all-tournament team, along with Fiander. “Her watching over us is what won us this game. I have no doubt in my mind.”

Tournament MVP Kaleo Anderson leading the Knights to a one-point halftime lead. King’s maintained that edge late into the third quarter, when the momentum shifted.

Senior Addison Johnston hit a reverse layup in the waning seconds to give the Leopards a 43-40 lead heading into the fourth and then Fiander and Valadez proceeded to score the next 10 points, capping a 14-0 run for the Leopards.

“It was neck and neck at halftime, and our coach told us we were the tougher team and we just needed to show it,” Valadez said. “Once we got the lead, we just ran away with it.”

Zillah (26-2) outscored King’s 20-11 in the fourth quarter, reminiscent of what the Leopards did in Friday’s semifinal win over Lynden Christian. The players never gave an inch on defense and their opponents simply don’t know how to handle that kind of pressure.

“I think our speed rattled them,” Valadez said. “They don’t experience that type of aggressiveness over on that side of the state. We were just going for their throats, and I don’t think they expected that.”

Fiander and Buck took turns guarding Anderson, a Division I college prospect who finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. The Leopards’ frenetic defense limited the Knights’ high-octane offense and held them to 37.3% shooting (19 of 51) on the night.

By contrast, Zillah shot 45.5% (20 of 44) and made 38.9% (7 of 18) from long range.

Few could have envisioned Zillah’s title run going more perfectly than it did, and they left no doubt who the true No. 1 team in the state is.

“Coming into the tournament, I thought we should be the No. 1 seed, and we definitely proved it tonight,” Klitzke said. “We have a different level of work ethic than everyone else, and no one else has gone through what we have, losing our coach. I believe that extra level of push — the way Brandie always coached us — is the reason we won tonight.”

New coach Joel Yellow Owl, who inherited the program from Brandie Valadez last fall, said he couldn’t be more proud of what his team accomplished Saturday night and throughout the postseason.

The players pushed through a kind of adversity that few high schoolers can relate to, and they put their best foot forward when it mattered the most.

“We definitely peaked at the right time,” Yellow Owl said. “Ever since the second half at regionals against Seton Catholic, we have really come together. You want to be playing your best basketball at the end of the season, and that’s exactly what happened with this group.”

Yellow Owl will bring back six of his top seven players next season, losing only Johnston to graduation. That gives the players every reason to believe they’ll be contending for back-to-back titles this time next year.

“We’ve got a lot of talent coming back and we should be here again next year,” Klitzke said. “We know what it’s going to take, and the work starts now.”