Considering the confident and assertive way his team went about its business in the last month, Naches Valley boys coach Jon Eldridge didn’t expect it to be an issue.

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But for the first seven minutes of Wednesday’s Class 1A state opener, it clearly was.

Tentative and out of synch in the pace-setting opening period, the Rangers dug an early 13-point hole, nearly climbed out of it and then faded at the end in a 61-39 loss to Chelan on opening day in the SunDome.

“Getting out to a good start is definitely something we talked about, so I was surprised to see us ill-prepared for the emotions and quickness of the game at the beginning,” Eldridge said. “Once we got passed that, we played well and did some good things. But we just had too far to come back from.”

The crisp start the Rangers hoped for was clearly in the hands of Chelan, and more specifically the omnipresence of Joe Harris, who was every bit as good as advertised in his state tournament debut.

The 6-foot-6 junior, who can run the point, post up and play the wing, poured in 32 points on 10-for-14 shooting, made five 3-pointers, grabbed six rebounds and collected four assists, three blocks and three steals in a complete floor game.

“He’s just an impossible matchup for us,” Eldridge said. “His size, his length and he’s so smart with the decisions he makes. He may not be the fastest kid out there, but his smarts make him look much quicker than he is.”

Against Chelan’s active, hard-working zone defense, the Rangers did manage some good results in the middle quarters, cutting that 15-2 early deficit to 43-34 in the opening moments of the fourth quarter.

But the effort of the long chase caught up with Naches Valley, which didn’t score a basket in the final period until Derek Huck’s 3-pointer with 1:07 left.

Chelan, which swept through the Caribou-Northeast regional with three big wins, was more than just Harris down the stretch. Derrick Talley scored the Goats’ first four points of the fourth quarter, and Aaron McQuaid scored six of his 12 points in the final 4:30.

“Coming out aggressive and ready to play is something we’ve done the last three, four games. We did that all through regionals and it’s nice to see that carry over,” said Chelan coach Joe Harris, the father of the game’s leading scorer. “We let them crawl back in it but we got refocused. For the first crack at state for these kids, I thought we played really well.”

The Rangers did not have a player in double figures, which led to the season-low 39 points. Justen Weigel led the team with eight points.

Disappointing as Wednesday’s effort was, Eldridge views those ills as entirely fixable.

“They just need to relax a little. When they do that confidence we’ve played with lately will come back,” he said. “Today we didn’t get into a flow and there were some stretches that really hurt us. But tomorrow I see them responding with a good game.”

Naches Valley (16-8) will play Kalama (16-9) in a loser-out game Thursday at 12:30 p.m. Chelan (23-4) moves into the quarterfinals and will face King’s (18-7) at 7:30 p.m.