When all around him was noisy pandemonium, when his Mabton teammates were missing free throws and the breathing room between the Vikings and their Tonasket pursuers was morphing from spacious to sparce, Tyler Herrera went to the foul line — and into his quiet place.

“I just think of something interesting to me,” the Viking sophomore said after going 7-for-8 at the foul line over the final 4:14 to clinch Mabton’s 38-33 victory and earn a spot in Saturday’s 10:30 a.m. fifth-place against Burbank.

“I think of a song I like, or something that’s happened in the last couple of days that I’ve had luck with. Anything to clear my mind.”

Herrera’s 15 points led the Vikings against Tonasket, but what spectators are most apt to remember is the nearly six minutes — 5:51, to be precise — that Mabton held the ball in the second quarter.

While behind.

“I think everybody in the whole building was wondering about that,” Mabton coach Brock Ledgerwood said of his team’s delay tactic, which began with the Vikings trailing 11-8 at 5:55 remaining in the half and ended with Eric Tellez’s layup at 0:04.

“But we’re 5-(foot)-10, we’re 5-4. We’ve got to make them play our game. The size of those (Tonasket) guys, they’re big and athletic. And they play a real tough zone that’s tough for us to attack.”

But after Herrera capped a 6-0 Tonasket run in the third quarter to tie the game at 16-16 and Tellez followed with a three-point play, the Vikings had control of the game — and the lead for good.

“We wanted to spread it out, get some back-door plays and some open shots,” Herrera said. And it worked. The Vikings built their lead to 26-18 before Tonasket — with Dan Stoddard hitting a pair of 3-pointers — pulled to within 34-32 with 1:08 remaining. Mabton, meanwhile, missed five straight free throws.

But, with the score 35-33 and 13 seconds remaining, Herrera went back to the line, and the results were the same: swish, swish.

“He’s really stepped up, especially for a young guy to be that mentally prepared and be able to do the job for us,” Ledgerwood said. “He’s the kind of kid who goes and gets the ball — he wants it in his hands in that situation.”

And so Mabton, which came into the state tournament 12-12 after being picked to finish at the bottom of the SCAC West heap, will come home with a state trophy.

“Nobody thought we’d be trophying,” Ledgerwood said. “But the bottom line is, the kids believed in themselves.”

Mabton -- Reynolds 0-1 0-0 0, R. Sanchez 0-2 0-0 0, Herrera 3-5 7-8 15, Smith 0-0 0-0 0, E. Sanchez 0-0 0-0 0, Morfin 1-1 3-6 5, Huecias 2-4 2-2 7, Tellez 3-9 1-3 7, Quintero 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 11-25 13-19 38.
Tonasket -- Hunlock 0-0 0-0 0, Osborne 3-11 4-6 11, Stoddard 3-6 2-2 11, Clarkson 0-0 0-0 0, Timmerman 1-2 0-2 2, Wells 1-3 0-2 2, Moser 3-10 1-2 7. Totals 11-32 7-14 33.
Mabton	5	5	9	19	--	38
Tonasket	7	4	5	17	--	33
3-point goals--M 3-5 (Herrera 2-2, Huecias 1-2, Tellez 0-1), T 4-11 (Stoddard 3-4, Osborne 1-4, Moser 0-3). Rebounds--M 22 (Tellez 5, Herrera 5), T 19 (Osborne 5). Assists--M 6 (Herrera 2, Morfin 2), T 4 (Timmerman 2). Steals--M 5 (Tellez 4), T 6 (Timmerman 2). Blocked shots--M 2 (Tellez 2), T 0. Fouled out--Tellez, Quintero, Stoddard. Total fouls--M 13, T 18. Technical fouls--None. Turnovers--M 12, T 9.