It came a day late, but the Naches Valley Rangers finally arrived at the Class 1A state basketball tournament. And now, a day after stagnating like a car without a spark plug, they’ll have even more time to get on a roll.

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Because they found that spark. And they needed to, because the Kalama Chinooks — who, like the Rangers, had played on Wednesday as if lost in a fog — were also hitting on all cylinders. The Rangers’ 50-43 victory came in a game played marvelously by both teams, an entertaining, back-and-forth affair that had seven lead changes and was actually closer than the seven-point spread would indicate.

In fact, the Rangers didn’t begin to put Kalama away until Weigel, who normally scores less than six points a game, scored seven over a four-minute span that began in the third quarter.

“It just seemed like I needed to step up a little bit,” said Weigel, whose 12 points led the Rangers’ balanced attack. “Sometimes you have to do that when other guys aren’t. We all do it.”

And Weigel’s burst, which included a 3-pointer, couldn’t have come at a better time.

Kalama, sparked by cat-quick guards Robby Sanders and Brandon Walker — who combined for 30 points and six steals — had a 28-27 lead midway through the third quarter, having erased an 18-13 Rangers lead a quarter earlier.

“I don’t know what their names are, but No. 5 (Sanders) and No. 2 were just terrific today,” Rangers coach Jon Eldridge said. “They shot well, they penetrated well, and I thought we were actually doing d a decent job of defending them.”

Sanders had done basically nothing in the first half, held to a single 3-point basket, but he came on to score 14 second-half points in helping the Chinooks take control.

“In the first half they were in a 3-2 zone, and I couldn’t really penetrate it,” Sanders said. “If I had an open shot I took it, but they did a good job of not giving up open looks. There just wasn’t much there.

“In the second half they went back to man and I was able to take my man one-on-one, I think I was a little bit quicker than he was, and I was able to knock down some shots.

“But they were knocking down their shots. You’ve got to give it to them.”

And that was the difference. After shooting a frigid 33 percent a day earlier, the Rangers (17-8) went 4-for-4 in the opening period — “In the first quarter we were on fire,” Weigel noted — and shot 16-for-28 (57 percent) for the game.

The Chinooks (16-10) couldn’t keep pace with that consistent shooting, and so their season ended, while Naches Valley will get the opportunity to play for a berth in Saturday’s fifth-eighth place game. Their opponent will be Castle Rock, which dispatched a cold-shooting Granger squad Thursday.

“I was pleased with how we played,” Eldridge said. “We’ve played better at times this season, but in this situation, being in the state tournament with all of the tension and pressure, I thought the kids responded very well to that.”

And now the Rangers have another day to do it again.