The Federal Way Eagles boys basketball team is not the first seed into the district tournament or even the second from the South Puget Sound League North Division.

But that did not matter, as the third-seeded Eagles just are going to take it one quarter at a time like they did beating the visitor to their gym, Gig Harbor, 76-56 in opening round West Central District 4A action Thursday.

The Eagles sport a fantastic 17-3 overall record. They have lost to no one, outside of league opponents, Decatur once and Kentridge twice.

Hence, the Eagles being the third seed into the WCD tourney that continued for them (after press time) with a match up versus Kentridge.

In the game versus Gig Harbor, it was the Tides shooting strong to maintain striking distance through one quarter, behind 14-11 halfway through the first at the four minute mark.

And it was 26-18 after the first. But it could have been closer at the end of one. Game-high scorer, senior 6-5 guard Terrell Smith, a captain on the Eagles, said some things about fellow captain, junior wing 6-5 Aaron Broussard, who had a good game, too, with 22 points, to sum things up.

"It was pretty even (14-13, Eagles with 3:30 left) and then my man Broussard hit a big three to start us off and he grabbed a couple off rebounds for putbacks," said Smith, putting an arm around Broussard as he talked. Broussard could only smile.

In the second quarter, it was some frenetic defense by the Eagles jumping out on every Tides ball handler getting the ball off a pass. The Eags' defense led to seven second quarter Tide turnovers and the offensive woes must have led to defensive problems because both were bad. The Eagles scored 17 points in the second quarter while limiting the Tides to two. And those two came in the final 48 seconds so it was nearly a scoreless second quarter achieved by the Eagles over the Tides.

"That was our goal all season, to hold teams under 10 points per quarter," said Broussard.