The luck of the draw certainly wasn't with the Decatur Gators for Wednesday's state 4A boys basketball tournament opener, but they made up for it with a David and Goliath routine to edge the towering Snohomish Panthers, 53-50.

All but one Panther player stands above 6-0 and they quickly go up from there to 6-8. The Gators have players ranging from starting sophomore point guard Michael Hale at 5-7 to Darius Walker at 6-5. Senior wing Stedman Richardson stands at 6-3, junior guard Marcus Tibbs at 5-10 and senior wing Trey Williams at 6-3.

It was the shortest player, Hale, who stood out in this game as he took the ball right through the Panthers on his way to 16 points.

"That team is huge," said Hale of Snohomish, which won the Wesco Conference and came in with a 21-2 overall record. Snohomish fell to third in the league in the post season tournament and hence got the low draw.

Decatur came in at 21-2 and won the No. 1 state seed out of the West Central District tournament.

"We got the toughest game of the year," said Gators head coach Kevin Olson. "But we were not scared and had no fear."

The game was back-and-forth right down to the wire, with Snohomish taking its last lead at 50-49 on a three-point basket by Kegan Bone with 2:07 to play.

But Richardson, who tied Hale for the Decatur lead at 16 points, came through with a steal and basket with 46 seconds left to make it 51-50.

Hale then came up empty on a 1-and-1 free throw opportunity before Tibbs stole the ball and banked it in from the right side with six seconds left. The Gators then held on for the 53-50 win.

Behind the 16 points of Hale and Richardson, Walker swished in 11 points and Tibbs tallied 10. Zach Wilde led Snohomish with 15 and Bone scored 11.

Pasco 52,-Decatur 49

Slow tempo and an unexplainable dissipation of energy left the No. 3 state-ranked Decatur Gators pondering a 52-49 quarterfinal loss to No. 10 Pasco on Thursday at the WIAA/Dairy Farmers of Washington Class 4A state basketball tournament

Throughout the season, the West Central District champion Gators have pulled themselves off the floor and found ways to get the job done in crunch time.

This time, the tearful Decatur players leaving the Tacoma Dome court after star guard Marcus Tibbs missed a 3-point attempt to tie the score at the end of regulation, showed the hurt of unfulfilled expectations.

"We made some nice buckets and Michael Hale knocked down some shots," related a disappointed Gator head coach Kevin Olson.

"After we got some nice turnovers and transition baskets to get up 10 points, it seemed like we didn't realize the situation that we were ahead...We let them loose for some open, easy looks and they knocked them down. We took some bad shots and some missed easy ones...for some reason, we ran out of energy tonight."

Pasco gambled with a box-and-one on the Gators' Marcus Tibbs and effectively shackled the high-scoring junior for only four points on 2-of-11 shooting - well below his season average.

Decatur senior forward Stedman Richardson stepped up for 19 points and eight rebounds to pick up some of the slack, but in the end, myriads of missed shots from within five feet, and an inability to capitalize on three straight Bulldog free throw misses in the final 30 seconds of the fourth quarter, joined Tibbs' final miss that rimmed out with two seconds remaining among the opportunities squandered.

"People didn't definitely get to see the real style of Decatur basketball," said Richardson.

In the face of Pasco's deliberate style of tempo, Decatur clung to a 24-20 halftime lead.

Despite the Pasco pressure on Tibbs, Richardson's inside goal, two consecutive Hale 3-pointers and a Tibbs basket helped balloon the Gator margin to 34-24 with 5:21 left in the third quarter. Wide-open 3-point goals from Andre Griffin and Shayne Kelly ahead of two easy layups totalled up to a 17-2 run and a 41-36 Bulldog lead.

Decatur fired back to tie the game at 41 on another Hale 3-pointer, but Pasco left the Gators gasping for air one more time to take a 46-43 lead with 1:56 remaining.

Hale's 3-pointer brought Decatur within 48-46 with less than 30 seconds left.

Although Pasco then missed the front end of three consecutive one-and-one free throw opportunities, the Bulldogs got a breakaway layin with 26.3 seconds remaining and held on for dear life as they sweated out Tibbs' final 3-point try.

"All year long, you've looked at us, our mindset, our presence, the way that we carry ourselves on the floor, and you could tell that we were gonna win that game," explained Olson. "And today, we just didn't have that swagger...For some reason, we really just lost that chip today...We just didn't have it down the stretch in the second half."

Hale had 12 points on four 3-pointers for Decatur. Jacob Ohlwerter came off the bench for eight caroms. Shayne Kelly and Henry Randolph scored 14 points for Pasco.

Prairie 59, Decatur 50

Prairie of Southwest Washington bumped the Gators from the tournament Friday, leaving them one game short of state placement.

Walker led Decatur with 14 points, as Hale scored 11, Tibbs 10, Richardson nine, Allen Brooks four and Alex Lewis two.

--Gerardo Bolong contributed the Pasco portion of this report.