All it took was Jason Friend blocking the first shot of the game for things to begin falling into place for Sunnyside Christian on the Knights’ first day in defense of its 2007 Class 1B title.

Sunnyside Christian's Joel Koopmans looks for an outlet under pressure from Odessa during Wednesday's game. Koopmans scored 17 points in the Knights' win.   ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic

The shot, by Odessa’s rugged 6-foot-3 center, Travis Todd, ended up first tipped and then grabbed by the Knights’ 6-6 Friend. And although Friend finished with five blocks, it was the shots he didn’t reject — because they were either taking off-balance and hoping to avoid his long arms, or not taken at all — that made the difference in Sunnyside Christian’s surprisingly easy 48-20 triumph.

“I gotta give it to Jason,” senior Jesse Brouwer said after the game. “Down low, he’s a big presence. After they got blocked a few times, they didn’t want to take it in there as much.”

Although Friend wasn’t a big presence on the offensive end, that wasn’t necessary; Joel Koopmans nearly outscored the Tigers by himself, scoring 17 points on 8-for-13 shooting.

But Friend, who wasn’t even on the state-tourney roster during the Knights’ 2007 run to the title, was a difference-maker at the other end.

“Jason was just a force,” said Knights coach Dean Wagenaar, whose 17-5 team will face Rosalia (18-8) in Thursday’s 5:30 p.m. quarterfinal. “I think they expected to get 45 (Todd’s uniform number) inside to score, and Jason just said uh-uh. Not gonna happen.”

Sunnyside Christian's Jason Friend defends Odessa's Travis King during Wednesday's game.   ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic

For the Tigers (11-11), who drop into a consolation-bracket game at 10:30 Thursday against North River, not much happened offensively at all. They shot an abysmal 21 percent (6 for 29) against SC’s matchup zone, scored a single basket over one 8 1/2-minute stretch of the first half and then went scoreless for five minutes of the second.

“Defense all starts with communication,” Koopmans said. “If we don’t talk, we don’t play good defense. And we were talking a lot out there. They’re really athletic — more athletic than we are. I think we were just more fundamentally sound than they were.”

Fundamentally sound and very, very careful with the ball. The Knights committed only eight turnovers, shot nearly 50 percent for the game and were very patient at all times. That was all part of the plan.

“I just said value the ball,” Wagenaar said. Noting that he wanted his team to take high-percentage, open shots, and not take a shot until they had one that met those qualifications, he said, “On a scale of 10, every shot had to be a nine-and-a-half, if not a 10.”

Koopmans, noting that the Knights no longer have the two prominent cogs in last year’s championship machine — 2A player of the year Aaron Van de Graaf and tournament MVP Cole Van de Graaf— said the team has to do more of the little things right.

Like defense.

“That’s how we’re going to have to win every game,” he said. “We don’t have the offensive firepower we had last year. We’re not going to be overpowering teams.”

Odessa might beg to differ.