By the first three or four minutes of their 55-30 quarterfinal beating at the hands of the top-ranked Squalicum Storm, the Toppenish Wildcats — fresh off their opening-day upset of No. 2 Mark Morris — knew they had an entirely different problem on their hands.

“Mark Morris, that’s a very good team,” Wildcat senior Patrick Peters said. “This team was just ... better. I don’t have any fancy words for it. They were just better.”

A lot better — and it took the Storm (24-1) little time to demonstrate it and earn their semifinal berth against Fife. Only 4 1/2 minutes into the game, they already had a double-digit lead, and even though the Wildcats managed to stay within striking distance at 24-16 late in the second quarter, the outcome never seemed in doubt.

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And it never was.

“They’re a very good team,” said Toppenish coach JoJo Mesplie, whose 15-12 team will face Anacortes (also 15-12) in a loser-out, winner-clinches a trophy game at 12:30 p.m. Friday. “I thought they’d have somewhat of a height advantage, but I definitely knew their guard play was a lot better than ours.”

Two of those Squalicum guards, Keith Stackhouse and Derek Dickerson, scored 14 and 10 points, respectively, while forward Michael Greene added 12 points and hauled down 10 rebounds to pace the Storm’s 39-23 rebounding domination.

For the Storm, who had anticipated a quarterfinal matchup against the towering Mark Morris lineup, dealing with the quick, feisty Wildcats was a completely different challenge.

“This team, Toppenish, they really brought it to us,” Stackhouse said. “They have a lot of fan support here, and they play hard. They’re tough. After how they played against Mark Morris, we knew we had to bring it.”

Squalicum coach Dave Dickson, whose team has lost only to the nation’s top-ranked team, Mater Dei of California, said his team hasn’t played anybody quite like Toppenish.

“It was a unique challenge,” Dickson said. “We do not play teams like they have here in the Yakima Valley, teams like the ones in the CWAC. We don’t have teams that run and play that aggressive style of defense. It’s hard to replicate; it’s hard to duplicate it in a walk-through.”

Nor could the Wildcats’ first-round game against the comparatively slow-reacting Mark Morris defense prepare them for Squalicum’s oh-so-active defenders. After hitting nine 3-pointers Wednesday, Toppenish managed just 2-for-19 shooting on 3s against the Storm, hitting one of them just before the final buzzer.

“We were cold,” Peters said. “We were probably something like 2-for-20 from beyond the arc. Their defense was active, but we still got the open looks. We just didn’t finish.”

Peters and Mario Sanchez finished more than most, with each 10 points and combining to shoot 8-for-14 from the field. The rest of the team, though, shot a cumulative 5-for-33.

The Wildcats were despondent after the game, and Mesplie was heartened by that.

“They’re very disappointed, and that’s a good thing,” Mesplie said. “It’s nice when losses like this really hit home. Because we’re at the state tournament. Our kids have faced a lot of adversity to get here, and the teams that bounce back are the ones who have the heart of champions and who hurt when they lose.”

And, in this case, the Wildcats were bound to lose sooner, not later. They faced No. 2 ... and then No. 1.

Sighed Peters, “We got the toughest draw of this year.”

Or almost any other year, for that matter.