There exists no official manual, no single document in which basketball's fundamentals are clearly detailed.

But they exist, having been diagrammed initially by James Naismith and later refined, if not reinvented, by the likes of John Wooden.

None of them, it seems, has been lost on Dean Wagenaar. And that explains in fundamental terms why Saturday night's first Class 1B state boys championship was not lost by Sunnyside Christian's Knights.

From Jesse Brouwer's opening 3-pointer to Aaron Van de Graaf's celebratory scream at the final buzzer, Sunnyside Christian controlled the ball, themselves and the game, soundly defeating Tulalip Heritage 58-40 in the SunDome.

Officially, the Knights committed seven turnovers — a minute total for a game of such magnitude and against a team of such talent.

Far more frequent, if not nearly as evident, were examples of SC's poise, precision and discipline.

Little things — time-honored principles often lost in the glare of TV cameras and plays of the week.

Make the extra pass. Establish and maintain a pivot foot. Never leave your feet without a purpose. Never waste your dribble but never be afraid to dive for a loose ball.

Be quick but don't hurry, as Wooden has often said.

"It's something we do every day, and the kids probably get sick of it," Wagenaar said amid the postgame din at midcourt. "We'll spend 15 to 20 minutes doing a drill we call 1-2s — where we catch the ball and land so we don't travel."

The concepts are not new, to either the game or the Knights.

Saturday night's championship was Sunnyside Christian's fourth, and the third in the past six seasons for Wagenaar.

One was won with a genuine prep superstar, Lance Den Boer, who on this occasion was 35 miles north on Interstate 82, scoring 15 points in a Central Washington victory and etching his name more indelibly Wildcats' lore.

The state's career prep scoring leader, Den Boer was the 2001-2002 championship team's franchise player. But neither the 2004-05 title team nor this one had an athlete of his caliber.

No one among these Knights could do things Den Boer could. But all of them, it seemed, could do what the game, the opponent and Wagenaar mandated.

Value every possession. Meet every pass. Defend with your feet, not your hands. Block off the boards and make your free throws.

"We take those things seriously," said Cole Van de Graaf, a sturdy 6-foot-4 junior who made each of his nine field goal attempts and scored a game-high 20 points. "The fundamentals we use are the key to us winning."

Beat a press with the pass, not the dribble. Move without the ball. Set good screens.

Sunnyside Christian did all of the above, and did them consistently Saturday night.

"We made some mistakes," Wagenaar said, "but not many. We made a cross-court pass against their press, although we probably should have gotten a call (foul) on the play. We took a three that I wasn't happy with.

"But over the course of the game we didn't waste many possessions."

The Knights' diligent attention to detail manifested itself nicely on the final statistics' sheet — 59 percent shooting, a 28-16 rebounding advantage and only 11 personal fouls.

The term "clinic" comes to mind.

Championship, too.

The 1B tournament might have been for the state's smallest schools, but the biggest, strongest and fastest teams that will compete later this week in Tacoma would do well to emulate Sunnyside Christian's style.

Nothing the Knights did Saturday night, save for perhaps a nice backdoor pass or a long 3-pointer, would play well on SportsCenter.

But they left the SunDome with the biggest trophy, and none among the players, coaches or fans would have traded it for anything else.