ROYAL CITY - Royal High School will host Granger Thursday night in its first boys basketball district tournament game in seven years.

Game time will be 7 p.m.

Both teams will be looking to advance to the semifinals on Saturday. Four teams each from the South Central A Conference West and East will battle for three state tournament berths over two weeks.

If the Knights win Thursday, they will most likely play Zillah on Saturday. If they lose, the likely Saturday opponent in an elimination game will be Burbank or River View.

Considering Granger's state tournament history and the 84-52 hurt the Spartans put on the Knights in December, the Spartans should be favored tonight.

But Granger's not rolling like it was then. The Spartans were 5-0 at the time. They've gone 11-4 since then, taking three losses in the second half of the season.

And the Spartans are not used to traveling for district. They are usually the No. 1 or No. 2 seed out of the West. This time they are No. 3 behind Zillah and Naches.

Still, the Spartans are ranked in the state top 10. They have good shooters on offense and a stout fullcourt defense.

"We'll have to play at the very top of our game," Royal coach Pete Christensen said. "We'll have to shoot better and avoid turnovers."

Ball control and shooting were the problems the first time. The Knights missed several open opportunities, lost the rebound battle and gave up most of the loose ball opportunities.

Royal finished the season with wins over River View, 44-33, and Burbank, 52-51, last weekend to post an 8-4 SCAC East record and second place. The Knights finished 11-8 overall.

Kent Christensen led the Knights against River View with 15 points. He led in rebounds with 10.

Reed Lefler added 10 points and Brady Dixon had nine.

In the win over Burbank, Royal got scoring from nine players, including 11 points from Christensen. Alex Ramirez had nine, Lefler eight and Frank Leitz had seven. Christensen, Lefler and Dixon took down five rebounds each.