After extending their season twice with impressive victories on the second and third days of the Class 1A girls basketball tournament, the Zillah Leopards had their season extended yet a third time.

This time, though, it wasn’t fun. The SunDome went dark for 26 minutes in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s fifth-place game but, unfortunately for Zillah, it wasn’t because the Leopards had been shooting the lights out.

A third straight early wake-up call for morning games — the last two for 9 a.m. tipoffs — may have taken as much of a toll on the Leopards as a very good Burbank team in the Coyotes’ 46-37 victory.

“Our legs are tired, but we know what we can do, what we’re capable of,” said Leopard senior Joelle Patterson, whose nine points tied point guard Felicia Gonzales for team-high honors. “It was tough (playing early-morning games), but it feels good to come home with some hardware.”

They did it despite shooting a dismal 29 percent from the field and an even uglier 4-for-15 from the foul line, and being whipped under the boards — particularly on their own defensive end, where Burbank grabbed as many offensive rebounds — 22 — as Zillah had defensive rebounds.

“I felt like today we were just a little bit off, just a step off, and the last two days it seemed like we were always two or three steps ahead of everyone,” said Zillah coach Mindi Winters, whose team finished 21-7. “Four days in a row can be difficult, especially doing morning games. Each day, I felt like we couldn’t do a shootaround, because everyone’s going to have dead legs.”

Still, the Leopards managed to stay within striking distance of Burbank (24-4), a very solid team that — but for its very tough first-round draw against Lynden Christian — might have been playing much later in the day.

“I was very proud of the girls,” said Burbank coach Ken Idler, whose team got 14 points from Brianna Smith and 11 from Lauren Rada. “When you get fifth place twice in a row, that’s an accomplishment. Everybody wants to be a champion, but when you lose that first game, the girls did a good job of putting that behind them and focusing on what we could take care of.”

Zillah, meanwhile, will lose five seniors, among them Gonzales, who picked up three assists to finish as one of the tournament leaders with 15.

“She’s been my floor general,” Winters said. “She’s one of the smartest point guards I’ve ever played with or coached. She had a great season.”

And the Leopards’ eighth-place season wasn’t bad, either.

Zillah -- B. Ziegler 1-7 3-4 5, F. Gonzales 4-11 0-3 9, C. Ziegler 0-5 0-0 0, S. Gonzales 0-0 0-0 0, Uasike 1-6 0-0 3, Patterson 4-12 0-2 9, Walker 2-3 0-0 4, Guthrie 3-7 1-6 7, Cardenas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-51 4-15 37.
Burbank -- Windsor 1-4 1-2 4, Roberts 0-0 0-0 0, Rada 2-9 7-10 11, Smith 3-13 5-6 14, Staley 3-10 1-3 7, Rucker 0-0 0-0 0, Holst 0-2 0-0 0, Idler 4-11 2-6 10, Hyde 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-50 16-27 46.
Zillah	10	8	8	11	--	37
Burbank	10	11	12	13	--	46
3-point goals--Z 3-19 (Uasike 1-4, Patterson 1-4, F. Gonzales 1-5, C. Ziegler 0-2, B. Zieger 0-4), B 4-15 (Smith 3-6, Windsor 1-3, Hyde 0-1, Staley 0-1, Rada 0-4). Rebounds--Z 32 (Uasike 6, Patterson 6), B 54 (Idler 16, Smith 10). Assists--Z 8 (F. Gonzales 3), B 4. Steals--Z 11 (F. Gonzales 3), B 11 (Smith 5). Blocked shots--Z 4 (Guthrie 4), B 1. Fouled out--C. Ziegler. Total fouls--Z 19, B 16. Technical fouls--None. Turnovers--Z 21, B 26.