Try as you might, finding a player, coach or even a mascot speaking ill of the Sunnyside Christian boys basketball team at the 1B tourney is like viewing a Knight traveling down the lane.

Following its predecessors, this year's team has fundamentals so sound even Bob Knight would struggle finding faults. Besides the occasional bad call, what would he yell about? A pass too early in one of those minute-plus offensive sets run like the players were X's and O's on a wipe board?

Turns out the biggest detractors might have been the SC players themselves. Even they seem amazed after blowing through the first three rounds, winning by an average of 20.6 points per game. This season was supposed to be a glow that never burned as bright as last year's 26-0 state championship.

Now the year will be remembered as the one Ryker Van Belle, the freshman who averaged only 2.9 point per game, hit a last-minute 3-pointer in overtime to propel the Knights to a 38-37 victory against Tekoa-Oakesdale. "We've never had one like this," said SC coach Dean Wagenaar, who has led the Knight to three of their four championships."

T-O exposed the Knight mystique a bit — a ballooning reputation since the 1B tourney was created two years ago. Nobody thought anybody had a chance against the SC juggernaut, but maybe the run-and-gun Nighthawks knew about the Knights' struggles earlier this year.

Or perhaps they talked to the Liberty Christian Patriot — probably the creepiest mascot running around the SunDome with his all-teeth grin. He knows how SC started slow this year as his team handed the Knights one of two losses in the first three games of the season.

Unfortunately, he was unavailable for comment Saturday night in the SunDome since the top-ranked Patriots lost to Entiat in the first round before rallying to take fifth place. Having been the only 1B team to beat the Knights this season is the one title those players can crow about heading into next year.

Liberty Christian won that season-opener 48-41 and displayed what teams needed to do against players who practice not traveling like most do free throws. Putting up numbers and building early leads against the Knights is key, and four of the team's five losses this season — 2B La Salle, 2B Riverside Christian and 1A Wahluke are the others — came when opponents scored at least 45 points.

T-O almost joined Riverside Christian as the only team not to follow that trend, beating SC 37-28 in the second matchup. RC, top-ranked and heading to the 2B tourney in Spokane at 21-0, was the only team with both the patience on defense and the inside-outside offensive firepower to match the Knights in probably the best Class B game of the season.

Until the Nighthawks changed that opinion Saturday.

Back then the Knights went back to Sunnyside upset about being the first SC team to lose two straight games to the Crusaders in a long time — the Knights have a 6-3 advantage in the series the past four years. Yet in the loss they displayed how all the parts came together during the season, and it was the last time the team didn't win.

Players had grown into their roles as Joel Koopmans displayed the patience needed from the leading scorer. Point guard Danny Van Boven held his own against RC guard Chris Pynch, one of the best ball handlers in the state at this level. And the 6-foot-6 Jason Friend even got a handshake from Crusader coach Bruce Siebol for his dominating presence in the paint altering and blocking shots.

Now as only four seniors depart, the opponents' fears for next year should begin. When that not-so-often-used bench got into the game in the final minute against Entiat on Friday, fans saw Wagenaar's finger prints all over them — tough defense, offensive patience, sound fundamentals.

They are players who have been developed for prime time on Friday nights. Because the Knights don't re-load on players, they re-position them. They find ways to win even in the so-called "down years," leaving 1B opponents fearful of what another "up year" could bring.