Twelve minutes and two seconds.

That's how long it took second-ranked Granger on Wednesday to transform itself from just another undefeated team being exposed in state-tournament play as a pretender to, well, a Class 1A contender.

Brandon Castro goes up for a shot in Granger's state-tournament opener against Lakeside on Wednesday in the Yakima Valley SunDome.   GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic   View all photos for this story.

That remarkable span was the final 12:02 of the Spartans' opening-round 52-33 thumping of a Lakeside team that had taken them to overtime in a midseason game. That's right: After opening the second half with a 14-3 run to take a five-point lead, Lakeside went scoreless over the last 1 1/2 quarters.

Granger, meanwhile, scored 24 straight points.

"Twenty-four? Really? Dang," sophomore forward Andrew Reddout said moments after the game when he heard the numbers. "We just started working harder on defense, and didn't jump on their shots. You need to stand straight, hands up, don't jump, and make them have to go through you."

Actually, a play in which the Eagles did go through a Granger defender may well have provided the spark the Spartans needed. Lakeside guard Chris Cochrane, who led the Eagles with 13 points and six rebounds, drove the lane and put up a shot as he slammed into defender Mitchell Zapien, who had waited patiently in his spot to draw the charge and went down at the contact.

No call. Zapien didn't say a thing. He just looked up at the official with a barely discernible look of disdain -- You couldn't see that? -- and the Spartans went to work.

Forty seconds later, Zapien drove the baseline and dished to Reddout for a layup that ended an 11-0 Lakeside run. Brandon Oswalt, whose 14 points would lead the Spartans, swished a 3-pointer to tie the game at 33-33. Then Reddout made a steal, took off down the court leading a 3-on-2 break and passed to Brandon Castro for the go-ahead layup.

By this time, Granger coach Miguel Bazaldua's game plan -- play a pressing man-to-man defense instead of the Spartans' favored zone -- was beginning to come to fruition.

"They're taller than us. The whole plan was to take away their legs," said Bazaldua, whose team will carry a 23-0 record into Thursday's 4 p.m. quarterfinal against No. 6 King's (20-6). "Our kids battled hard. We were giving up fouls, but we had fouls to give, because we were running guys in and out. So our guys were fresh."

That became increasingly evident as the Eagles' drought extended from midway through the third quarter and on into the fourth. Meanwhile, the Spartans were picking up their own pace.

Asked about the key to that 24-0 run, Zapien -- who faced a box-and-one defense all day but managed to accrue 11 points, a game-high eight rebounds and three blocks -- had a quick answer.

"Intensity," he said. "That big guy (Eagles center Ryan Gunderson, who had eight of his 11 points at halftime) was eating us up. We had to stop him." How? "You've just got to have each other's back. You know: If he beats you, I've got your back."

And, as it turned out, the boards.

"Last time we played them," Zapien said, they outrebounded us bad."

This time, though, the rebounding battle was a virtually standstill, with the Eagles having only a 38-37 edge. Twelve of Lakeside's rebounds came on the offensive end, where the Eagles really struggled, managing just 20 percent shooting (9-for-45).

Bazaldua had a simple explanation.

"No legs," he said with a knowing nod. "You saw it."