Miguel Bazaldua hasn't needed the pick-up-your-chin speech all season. For 23 games, the closest the Granger's boys coach came was lightly scolding his kids for an ugly win.

Granger's Mitchell Zapien (32) is fouled by Daniel Berendsen of King's during a drive to the basket in their Class 1A boys quarterfinal game Thursday.   ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic   View all photos for this story.

But when the time finally came late Thursday afternoon, when the long ride had ended in the Class 1A state quarterfinals, Bazaldua looked around at his young Spartans and realized he wouldn't need the speech.

"We haven't tasted defeat all year and you wonder, now, how will the kids handle it?," he said after King's outlasted Granger 68-61 in the first quarterfinal of the day. "But they all said, 'Hey coach, we're ready to go again right now.' Believe me, they will bounce back."

Even with their sparkling 23-0 record and No. 2 state ranking, Granger faced a formidable challenge against King's on two fronts -- size and experience -- and the combined weight was just enough to repel the relentless Spartans.

The sixth-ranked Knights, last year's state runner-up, start five seniors and their front line measures 6-5, 6-3 and 6-6. Granger, which was 0-2 here a year ago, start no seniors and have nobody over 6-2.

King's used that two-headed advantage to pry open a 34-28 lead by halftime and Granger was never able to put together a run to catch up.

"After they got that lead we matched them basket for basket," said junior guard Brandon Oswalt, who led Granger with 14 points, two 3-pointers and three steals. "We had what they had in everything accept height. We just couldn't catch them."

The senior tandem of 6-foot-6 Daniel Cheledinas and 6-3 Karl Clocksin worked both sides of the low post for a combined 36 points, 19 rebounds and six blocked shots. They were a big season the Knights made 25 of 51 shots.
Clocksin was especially effective down the stretch, scoring nine of his game-high 20 points from the 1:48 mark in the third quarter to 4:14 left in the game.

Granger put up 20 points in the final period with the help of three 3-pointers, but the closest it got was 58-51 with 3:32 remaining.

"I love the way our kids battled," Bazaldua said. "All credit to King's -- that's a very good team. But with my midgets -- all juniors and sophomores -- up against their seniors and size, I'll take our effort. Right up to the last couple minutes, our kids still thought they could win."

That hope was dealt a blow when scoring leader Mitchell Zapien was whistled for his fourth foul on an offensive charge just three minutes into the second half. In and out of the lineup, he eventually fouled out with 3:14 left in the game, finishing with 12 points.

Despite the difference in size, Granger didn't give much away on the boards as King's led 40-34. But the shooting percentages -- King's 49.0, Granger 36.7 -- were the back-breaker.

"Granger works so hard and they battle you for everything. They believe they're all 7-footers," said King's coach Bill Liley. "I was worried about their ability to go on big runs, like last night when they ran a good Lakeside team out of the building in the fourth quarter. But our kids held together and played smart."

Helping to loosen things inside for their bigs, the Knights got a nice lift from senior guard Ryan Hoff, who hit three 3-pointers and scored 16 points. His third trey was the first basket of the fourth quarter for King's and came in the middle of Clocksin's charge.

The Spartans (23-1) haven't got long to regroup. They face Freeman (19-6) in a loser-out game Friday at 2:30 p.m.

"We'll turn this into a positive," Oswalt said. "We'll be ready tomorrow because we want to be in the game for fourth and seventh place."