The Vashon Pirates opened the 2008-09 basketball season with the biggest of targets on their back: the de facto No. 1 ranking even before the first poll came out.

And they didn’t mind a bit.

“We thrived with it,” grinned tournament MVP John Gage. “We loved being No.1, coming out and every night and playing as hard as we could.”

And nothing changed in Saturday night’s championship game against King’s. In one of the most dominant championship-game performances in the 52 years of the Class 1A tournament, the Pirates held the Knights scoreless for just over 12 minutes over the second and third periods — including the entire third — and routed the Knights 49-24.

The 24 points were the lowest points ever scored in a championship game, and the 25-margin was the third widest in tournament history.

The game was actually close 2 1/2 minutes into the second quarter, with the Knights trailing only 14-13, and going into the final 2 1/2 minutes of the first half, Vashon still led just 18-15.

And then, for the Knights (20-8), the roof caved in.

They didn’t score again until the first minute of the final period, and over that 12-minute, four-second drought Vashon (26-1) ran off 22 unanswered points. Gage scored 10 of his game-high 20 points during the run, and guard Thomas Timm-Skove put in six of his 13 over that span.

“We did a really good job of rebounding in that stretch,” said Vashon coach Andy Sears, whose Pirates’ only loss this season came to a state-ranked Class 5A Oregon team. “In the first half, we weren’t rebounding very well and (during the 22-0 run) we had more of a hunger for the ball, getting a body on people. And we also forced them into some tough shots, which is a good recipe for us.”

Over that run, the 6-foot-9 Gage ripped down one defensive rebound after another, en route to his game-high 15 rebounds.

“I think we made him angry,” said King’s coach Bill Liley. “We played them in Tri-District and we held him to two points in the second half. I think he came out determined to make up for that. He had something to prove.

“He’s a Pac-10 basketball player. We ran into two of those this week,” Liley added, referring to Gage and Chelan’s Joe Harris. “We slayed one of the giants, but we couldn’t get the other one.”

Nor could the Knights do anything against the Pirates’ long-armed, quick-footed, active defenders. They were 9-for-48 (18.8 percent) from the field, and even sharpshooting Ryan Hoff, who had riddled three previous defenses from long range, finished 0-for-9. Point guard Alex Mar led the Knights with just seven points.

“That’s our defensive focus,” Gage said. “If we run our defensive system to perfection, it’s almost impossible to score.”