Patience isn't a virtue to expect from the Mabton boys basketball team, and Onalaska planned to take advantage of that.

Playing slow and steady to start, the Loggers watched the Vikings build an early lead, slow things down and use great defense through the stretch to secure a 32-28 victory Thursday in the SunDome. A low-scoring affair in which the Mabton zone defense battled its offensive patience for what won the loser-out Class 1A state tournament game.

"Coach (Brock Ledgerwood) mostly wanted us to slow down and get to the line," said Mabton guard Tyler Herrera, who finished with a team-high 11 points and was the lone Viking in double figures. "I thought we'd do better (offensively), but there is some low scoring down here at state."

So low that Mabton tied Meridian's day-old tournament record for lowest winning score. The Trojans defeated River View 32-31 on Wednesday in a close game that looked to be surpassed early in the Viking-Logger contest with the way it started.

Mabton raced ahead to an 11-4 lead in the first quarter behind Herrera's six points. Onalaska turned to its size advantage in the second quarter to crawl back into the game as 6-foot-4 senior Torben Wendt scored 11 of his team-high 13 points in the second frame.

Wendt took only one shot for the rest of the contest as the Mabton defense took him out of the game like leading Logger scorer Trent Atkins. Averaging 17.9 points per game during the regular season, Atkins had only four points on 1-for-6 shooting.

Enrique Huecias drew the task of slowing down Onalaska's big scorer. Running zone to protect the inside against the much taller Loggers, the Vikings relieved Huecias of his help-side defensive duties to shut down Atkins.

"(Huecias) lives for that," said Ledgerwood, whose team improves to 13-12 overall and will meet Tonasket in another 9 a.m. loser-out matchup today. "He shut down their top guy and he didn't back off one bit."

Ahead 20-15 after halftime, Mabton had no trouble protecting the lead and the ball with patience in the second half. After winning the third quarter in which both teams combined for only nine points, the Vikings were content to take their time against the Loggers' impressive man-on-man defense that forced only 13 turnovers compared to their 19.

Some bad Mabton free-throw shooting did give Onalaska (12-14) a chance at the victory. Ahead 28-24 with 2 minutes, 9 seconds remaining, three different Viking players, including leading scorer Eric Tellez, missed the front end of one-and-ones.

Frankie Smith finally hit one free throw for Mabton as the Loggers hit a basket and a free throw to pull within one, 29-28, with 15 seconds remaining. Juventino Morfin hit his first free throw and missed the second, but Tellez, who finished with eight points, knocked the rebound out of an Onalaska player's hands to make up for his foul-line transgressions.

J.T. Reynolds nailed the two resulting free throws with 8 seconds left to secure the matchup with the Tigers, who defeated Granger 73-37 in another loser-out game Thursday. Tellez just was glad to get another chance to play at 9 a.m. after his early mistake.

"I felt a lot better after that (rebound)," Tellez said. "I was down after the miss. When I got the tip and then got it, I felt a lot better."

Mabton -- Reynolds 1-1 2-2 4, Sanchez 1-3 0-0 2, Herrera 5-10 1-2 11, Smith 2-4 1-3 6, Sanchez 0-0 0-0 0, Morfin 0-3 1-3 1, Huecias 0-3 0-0 0, Tellez 3-9 0-1 8, Quintero 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 12-34 5-11 32.
Onalaska -- Stanley 1-2 0-0 3, Sword 0-0 0-0 0, Wendt 6-9 1-1 13, Atkins 1-6 2-2 4, Wright 0-4 0-0 0, Kelly 0-0 0-0 0, Calvert 0-0 0-0 0, Majors 0-1 0-0 0, Lovely 3-8 2-2 8. Totals 11-30 5-5 28.
Mabton	11	9	5	7	--	32
Onalaska	4	11	4	9	--	28
3-point goals--M 3-8 (Tellez 2-3, Smith 1-2, Herrera 0-1, Huecias 0-2), O 1-6 (Stanley 1-1, Wright 0-1, Majors 0-1, Atkins 0-3). Rebounds--M 22 (Herrera 6, Tellez 5), O 23 (Lovely 6, Wendt 5). Assists--M 7 (Tellez 3), O 4 (Stanley 2). Steals--M 7 (Herrera 3), O 4 (Atkins 2). Blocked shots--M 0, O 2. Fouled out--None. Total fouls--M 11, O 17. Technical fouls--None. Turnovers--M 13, O 19.