Desire.

Whatever the cause is, it helped the White Swan boys move a little quicker, jump a little higher.

They needed those extra inches Thursday in the quarterfinals against a seventh-ranked Vashon team sporting a lineup worthy of being deemed a Class 1A state tourney favorite. A title that happens when three starters take the floor in the SunDome with heights of 6-foot-5, 6-7 and 6-9.

Yet these Cougars — no one is taller than 6-3 — never blinked nor wilted against giants who often held the ball right in front of their faces. This is White Swan, where they're used to being the undersized underdogs, and they don't just come to state for a fun season finale.

White Swan's Aaron Castilleja defends the basket in the first half Thursday against Vashon Island's Chris Pieterick.   KRIS HOLLAND/Yakima Herald-Republic

They come to play for a trophy — WS coach Manuel Rangel stressed this after the win. A goal the Cougars secured with a 46-42 victory against the Pirates along with a spot in the final four. They'll play River View, the last team to beat them in the SCAC district semifinals 58-55, at 4 p.m. today to decide how low the number can go on that hardware.

"Our guys are used to playing in the lions' den and against Goliaths in our house," said WS coach Rangel, who was an assistant when the Cougars took sixth after making the semifinals in 2005, their last state appearance. "Our guys come from White Swan, a small town.

"We play a lot here and we play our butts off."

Trailing 32-31 entering the fourth quarter, WS already had made this message heard. The Pirates weren't getting easy rebounds — they won that battle by only six — or shots, and every trip up the floor drew clouds of Cougar defenders clawing at the ball.

Vashon didn't back down and the game got physical for both sides. Leading WS scorer Brady Carl, a small forward by Pirate standards at 6-3, dove for a loose ball and a foot stepped on his elbow with 2 minutes, 41 seconds left in the third quarter. He went to the bench nursing his injury and had a bag of ice against it afterwards — "ibuprofen fixes everything," he said of today's status.

Whether or not things worked properly in his shooting arm, he wasn't missing the final quarter. He returned and scored back-to-back baskets to push White Swan ahead for good 39-35.

Tempers boiled over on the next Pirate possession as a Cougar drew a charge, and Vashon's Justin Calhoun disagreed. His comments to the official earned him a technical, and Travis Van Pelt knocked down one free throw to build the lead to five.

"That was a big thing, a huge thing," said Carl of the technical. "That's when the game switched over to us because everybody on the bench was jumping up and down going crazy."

Those WS backups had a stake in this one as Drew Blodgett came off his chair for 10 points. Because this effort was all team both defensively and offensively — eight Cougars scored and not one Pirate player was in double figures — and they needed great minutes from everyone right until the end.

John Gage, Vashon's leading scorer (16.5 points per game) as the 6-9 big man, hit a 3-pointer with 53.2 seconds left, cutting the deficit to 43-42 and starting a foul fest. Guy Sanchey missed the front end of a one-and-one for White Swan on the next possession, but Carl got on the floor for the rebound and Rangel called timeout.

Adrian Komaromy and Sanchey then knocked down three of four free throws to pull away. Trailing by three points in the final 30 seconds, Vashon turned the ball over and never got any good looks in a frantic last offensive possession with the lead at four.

"They are perfect for us," said Blodgett of Vashon. "Those are the kind of teams we love to play."

And these upstart Cougars, a third seed from the SCAC district, are here to stay.