The Enumclaw High boys guaranteed themselves a spot in the upcoming Class 3A state basketball tournament with a 65-58 victory Thursday night over North Thurston.

The game came in the opening round of the West Central/Southwest bidistrict tournament that will eventually send seven teams to state.

EHS led 21-12 after one quarter of play and 32-23 at halftime, only to see North Thurston rally to cut the margin to three points by the end of the third period. The Hornets secured their state trip with a 23-19 advantage in the final eight minutes.

Enumclaw was helped by a balanced offensive attack, led by Jason Lewis who finished with 20 points. Taylor Myers added 18, Riley Carel 13 and Tarren VanTrojen 12.

That was not the case on the North Thurston side, where Erik Henly dropped in 31 points.

The Hornet boys next play at 8 p.m. March 6 at Puyallup High against Union. A victory would put EHS in the bidistrict title game on March 7 and a loss would mean playing for either the No. 3 or No. 5 seeds to state. All the March 7 games will be played at Puyallup High.