ROYAL CITY — After a scoreless first three minutes, Royal senior Mariah Wilhelm set up from behind the three-point arc and buried a basket to put the Knights up 3-0, opening the floodgates in Royal’s 59-14 win over Wahluke on Tuesday night. 

“With our team, when somebody hits one, then it’s contagious and everybody starts shooting well,” Royal head coach Farrah Wardenaar said. “It takes that first person to get it going, and it always helps when it’s Mariah; she’s a senior, she’s a captain. They all kind of follow her and Audrey Bergeson’s lead.” 

Royal connected on nine three-pointers in the win over the Warriors, including a team-high four by Wilhelm. Junior Briana Cedillo made three and sophomore Vanessa Cedillo made two. 

“That’s more than normal, so we were really happy with that. Hopefully, we save some more for this weekend,” Wardenaar said with a laugh. 

After not making a basket until 4:57 remaining in the first quarter, Royal got going on the offensive end to put up a 19-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. That lead was stretched to 40-4 going into halftime. 

“We had some seniors step up tonight, and after things didn’t go our way, they looked at everybody and said, ‘Hey, we need to turn this around,’” Wardenaar said. “Our goal was to put 40 points on the board by halftime, and we did it.” 

The Knights continued to put up points in the second half, holding a 58-14 lead at the final buzzer. Wilhelm and senior Audrey Bergeson tied for a team-high 12 points in the win, followed by Vanesa Cedillo and junior Avarie Hill both scoring 11 points and Briana Cedillo’s 10 points.  

“Tonight’s game, the seniors stepped up; they helped bring the energy, they were great leaders,” Wardenaar said. “We worked a lot on our man defense and getting preparation for this weekend.” 

Wahluke sophomore Yohary Magaña led the Warriors with eight points Tuesday night. 

Royal entered Tuesday’s game coming off a 65-45 loss at Wapato on Saturday. Prior to the loss, the Knights had defeated Chelan 51-28 on Jan. 18 and Connell 54-38 on Jan. 24. 

“We had a really good practice (Monday) and were ready to have a good game,” Wardenaar said. “We practiced a lot of things – we've got a tough week ahead, we’ve got Cashmere and Naches (Valley), so this was a good game for us.” 

The Knights improved to 10-7 overall and 7-5 in the South Central Athletic Conference with the win, checking in at fifth in the league standings. They host Cashmere on Friday at 5:45 p.m. 

Wahluke, still seeking its first win, hosts Wapato on Friday at 5:45 p.m. 

“There’s a couple teams that we really need to pick off, so we’re going to have to have some kids have some big games,” Wardenaar said. “If they play like they did tonight, we’ll do fine.” 

Box score 

WAH: 0-4-1-9 14
RYL: 19-21-14-5 59 

    Wahluke sophomore Yohary Magaña, right, brings the ball up the floor while being defended by Royal junior Briana Cedillo, left.
  

    Royal senior Audrey Bergeson pushes up the floor against Wahluke on Tuesday. Bergeson tied for a team-high 12 points in the win.
  

    Wahluke sophomore Fernanda Pineda, in maroon, turns around to shoot the ball in the second quarter of Tuesday’s game against Royal.