Zillah boys find comfort in their second home with a win over Class 2B champion Brewster in SunDome Shootout

YAKIMA – It had been two years since the Zillah boys basketball team last played in the Yakima Valley SunDome.

That’s a veritable eternity for a team that has made the arena its second home. Tuesday, though, the Leopards were as comfortable as ever in the SunDome.

Zillah scorched its way to 29 first-quarter points and then fought past an almost as equally at-home Brewster squad, 88-80, in the opening day of a reshuffled SunDome Shootout.

Clay Delp scored a game-high 29 points and Luke Navarre added 28 for Zillah, which improved to 7-0 this season. The duo combined for 28 of the Leopards’ 42 points in the second half, when they built a 17-point lead, only to see the Bears claw back to within four in the final two minutes.

"We shot it well for not being here in a long time but so did they," said Zillah coach Mario Mengarelli, lamenting the Leopards’ inability to finish off the Bears earlier. "That’s kind of been our Achilles heel -- we did it with Selah, we did it with Prosser and we did it with Brewster, but those are really good teams. But to define us, we have to find a way to put good teams away."

Kelson Gebbers had 27 for the Bears, the defending Class 2B state champions who claimed three 1A titles in the 2000s at the SunDome.

"They play with a high intensity, they really go at you so you have to be ready to defend," said Brewster coach Michael Taylor, who was part of the Bears’ 2003 and ’04 championships in the SunDome while playing for his father, Tim Taylor. "That’s going to prepare you for anybody. We had to see if we could match that and compete with teams that are better than us."

The pairing was not unlike those the teams will see in their respective state tournaments. Because of snow on the west side and pandemic protocols, more than a dozen teams canceled, leaving Mengarelli – who doubles as tournament director – to find last-minute replacements and juggle the schedule.

"We got such short notice we didn’t find out we were going to play these guys until 4 o’clock yesterday," Navarre said. "We have to take what we can get and that’s a good team."

 Ashton Waldman chipped in 17 points for the Leopards, who play Sunnyside – a 48-44 comeback winner against Selah on Tuesday – at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Brewster, which fell to 5-4, got 14 points from Adaih Najera and 11 from Cort Gebbers. The Bears face Lakewood at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Ellensburg 55, Zillah 36: The top-ranked Bulldogs scored the first 14 points of the game to race past the SCAC West favorites.

Katie Blume led Ellensburg with 16 points, Rylee Leishman had 15 and Dylan Philip added 14 as the Bulldogs improved to 8-0.

Mia Hicks topped the Leopards (4-3) with 16 points.

(Featured photo by Jerrel Swenning)