YAKIMA — In some ways, it can be hard for a high school basketball team to play consistently well during the course of a long season a year after losing a championship game.

Of course, the squad will work as hard as it possibly can to win every game it plays, but all along the players will know that in the end, only one thing matters — returning to the title game if it can, and winning. The desire for greatness has to be become even stronger in the team than it was the year before.

Last season, the Brewster girls team lost the 2B state championship game to Reardan. Even though the Bears moved up to the 1A ranks for the 2012-13 season, they knew that they were capable of playing for a title if things went their way. They used the painful memory of the Reardan loss as motivation during the few close games they played this season, and even during the myriad contests that weren't close.

All along, head coach Roger Boesel has stressed to his players that they should embrace a one-game-at-a-time mentality, perhaps fearing that they would want to look ahead to what could possibly await them at the end of the year. It would only be natural for a team as talented as Brewster is to do just that, after all.

But now, the Bears' season has been reduced to a single game. The one-game-at-a-time mantra has been altered. Now, Brewster is focused on playing its absolute best in one single contest that for the Bears will mean just about everything.

Brewster mauled Kings 60-36 in a 1A Hardwood Classic semifinal contest Friday at the Yakima County SunDome. The Bears will play Castle Rock, a 52-44 winner over Chelan on Friday in the tournament's other 1A semifinal contest, in Saturday's championship game.

The Rockets haven't lost a game this season and surely will present the Bears with one of their toughest challenges of the year.

Even though the game will in some ways define the Bears' season, the players are going to do their best to push that pressure out of their minds. That shouldn't be hard to do; after all, they've been doing that all season long.

"We're going to come out and treat it like just another game and do our thing," junior wing Monica Landdeck said. "(At the start of the year), we were hoping for a title. I'm new here; I met (my teammates) two months ago, and now we're like family. I love them. We've worked so hard, and we want a championship. We have to have that confidence that we're going to win."

If they do win Saturday, their approach to the season will be rewarded. If they don't, they'll be forced to endure another agonizing off-season, knowing that they came so close to their ultimate goal once again, only to watch it elude their grasp for a second straight year.

"We're back to where we wanted to be," Boesel said. "Now we're hoping for a better ending."

During the season, Brewster's players — because of their innate personalities, their experience from last season or other reasons — have adopted a business-like, relatively stoic manner on the court. They know how good they are and how good they can be, but they don't go out of their way to show it.

And that's exactly the way Boesel — in his first year coaching the team — prefers it.

"We want to act like we've been there before," he said. "There's no sense in doing weird things. We take it one game at a time and don't show a lot of emotion."

The championship contest will feature two squads that arrived at this point in intriguingly differing ways.

Even though the Rockets are undefeated, they weren't generally considered to be a favorite to win the title entering the round of eight. Their roster is stacked with girls that played on the school's volleyball team that won the 1A state championship in November, and unlike Brewster (which is no doubt a basketball town; it has been for decades), it's generally been thought that basketball isn't the top athletic priority for a lot of their top players, even though the Castle Rock basketball team advanced to the state quarterfinal round last season.

The Rockets will be out to alter that perception Saturday, but it can't be said that the Rockets don't possess a will to win — almost bordering on an expectation — that matches that of Brewster's players.

"I can't remember that last time I had to get after them," Castle Rock coach Don Misner said after his team beat the Goats. "They are a self-motivated, we-want-to-win group. If they were playing you in Monopoly, they wouldn't be satisfied unless they had all the money and all the properties.

"We're not happy just to get (to the title game). We have every intention of winning it. Now, it may not work out that way — some things you can't control. But if we don't win, it won't be because we didn't work hard."

Even though the two teams' motivation for victory might be slightly different, there's no doubt that Brewster and Castle Rock will give everything they have Saturday in an effort to come out on top. They simply wouldn't have it any other way.

Brewster 60, King's 36

The Bears wasted little time in establishing their dominance over a young King's squad that quite frankly was just happy to advance to the semifinals — Brewster took a 15-8 lead after one quarter and expanded its lead from there, eventually leading by as many as 27 points.

"The girls came ready to play," Boesel said. "They didn't lose their focus and weren't overconfident. We didn't want to look past anybody. I was surprised that Okanogan didn't beat (King's on Thursday), and (Knights coach Dan Taylor) told me before (Friday's) game that they had exceeded their expectations already. I didn't tell the girls that, though. They wanted to play hard.

"My goal was to get a big lead and give the starters a rest in the fourth quarter."

Brewster was able to accomplish that goal thanks mostly to its stifling defense — it held the Knights to 11 first-half points, forced 18 turnovers and limited King's to 18 percent shooting.

"They beat Okanogan, so we knew they were a tough team," Landdeck said. "We treated this game like it was the championship. We came in with that mentality. We did what we usually do with our man-to-man (defense) — play the passing lanes and get on them. We knew they like to rebound, so we tried to rebound the best that we could."

Chandler Smith had 27 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Bears.

Castle Rock 52, Chelan 44

The Goats couldn't have started their semifinal contest more differently than the way they started their Thursday quarterfinal game against Cascade Christian. Against the Cougars, Chelan played with intensity, focus and confidence from the opening tip, especially on defense, and quickly build a double-digit lead that it wouldn't relinquish.

On Friday, though, the Goats came out sluggish. They couldn't work the ball inside against the Rockets' aggressive defense, and were a step slow on their defensive rotations — they allowed Castle Rock to shoot 54 percent from the field in the first half, and the Rockets took a 31-21 halftime lead.

"It was like we were stuck in third gear," said Chelan coach Frank Phelps. "We couldn't get into a flow. I don't know if the girls had the same energy as they did (Thursday)."

Chelan regrouped and played better in the second half, though. Down 37-26 toward the end of the third quarter, the Goats went on a 9-0 run to cut the Rockets' lead to 37-35.

"I thought we had them on the ropes a little bit," Phelps said. "They started to panic."

Castle Rock didn't panic enough to allow Chelan to take the lead, however. The Rockets responded by scoring seven consecutive points to take a 44-35 lead with four minutes, 38 seconds left, and the Goats couldn't get closer than four points the rest of the way.

Castle Rock focused its defensive energies on Abby Phelps, who racked up 24 points and 16 rebounds Thursday. The Goats post tallied 12 points and 11 rebounds Friday, but she, along with the rest of her teammates, didn't get off to a good start — she had just two points and four rebounds at halftime. (Phelps had 20 points and 13 rebounds during the first two quarters of Chelan's win over Cascade Christian).

"(Castle Rock) did a super job on (Abby)," Frank Phelps said. "The put a great athlete on her, and neutralized her."

Rockets forward Tierney Uhlenkott scored 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. The battle for caroms was virtually even (Chelan had 35 rebounds to Castle Rock's 34), not a good sign for a Goats team that relies so much on putbacks for a large majority of its offense.

"We did a great job on the boards," Misner said. "(When Chelan made its run), it wasn't about what Chelan was doing; it was about things we weren't doing. The kids took a deep breath, mentally and physically, and were fine."

The Goats will play Kings on Saturday for third place (the loser will take home fifth). It's never easy for a team to recover and play well a day after losing a game with a berth in a championship contest at state, but Frank Phelps is optimistic that his team can forget about Friday's game and finish its season strong.

"We knew we had to get some breaks to win (Friday). We didn't get them, and you could tell (Castle Rock) is a team that's been there before," he said. "We talked after the game about how it's OK to feel disappointed, but let's try to wait for that until after (Saturday's) game. We had a goal to play on Saturday, and we have a chance to finish with third place. That's a heck of a season. I hope we can keep our heads up and come back (Saturday) and take care of business."

Lynden Christian 44, Okanogan 42

About one minute into the third quarter of Saturday's consolation contest, Okanogan's Kara Staggs was upended and hit her head on the floor. She was removed from the contest and was given a series of examinations by Washington Interscholastic Activities Association medical officials.

Staggs, who was already nursing a sore knee, didn't return to the contest. It's impossible to say whether the Bulldogs' leading scorer would've been able to help Okanogan beat the Lyncs, but her absence certainly didn't help matters.

"The medical staff didn't want to put her back into the game," said Bulldogs coach Bryan Boesel. "She looked fine to me. She wasn't seeing 16 fingers or anything like that. I know that taking precautions is the best thing for the athlete (in that situation), but this is her senior year, and she had to sit and watch (our final game of the season)."

For a second consecutive day, Okanogan didn't play well — it shot just 29 percent from the field — but rallied in the second half and had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds and force overtime.

Megan Parks' short baseline shot clanked off the rim, however, ending the Bulldogs' season.

"This group never gives up," Boesel said. "It doesn't matter if somebody is injured; everybody finds a way to help the team. We had a lot more energy (in the second half). We wanted to speed the game up. I told the kids to get some shots up — the ball isn't going to go in the basket by itself. We sped things up, spread it out and made some shots."

Cameron Moses hit several of those shots en route to an 11-point performance off the bench. Caitlyn Behymer led the Bulldogs with 15 points.

The Lyncs were dubbed as a tournament favorite before losing to Brewster on Thursday. They didn't play great Friday either, but took a 16-6 lead after one quarter and managed to hold on to its advantage for the rest of the game.

"We knew it would be a tough battle, but we got off to a good start by getting some good looks at the basket," said Lynden Christian coach Curt De Haan. "We got several key offensive boards and made some key shots at the end."