If the proverbial radar existed, Eastlake flew right right under it Wednesday night, hammering WesCo champion Lake Stevens, 69-48, in the opening round of the 4A boys state basketball tournament.

“We’re coming in here as underdogs,” senior Dillon Pericin said. “That’s motivation right there. It’s nothing against us, but it fuels the fire.”

The Wolves, who carried a 29-24 lead into the locker room at halftime, used their defensive pressure and transition baskets to pull away in the third quarter and never look back. Eastlake forced Lake Stevens into 12 second-half turnovers and 22 for the game. They had 13 total steals in the game.

“That’s kind of what we do,” head coach Pat Bangasser said. “We’ve got enough depth, we feel like we can play their rear ends off.”

Eastlake was led on offense by senior Michael Russo, who scored a game-high 21 points. Pericin added 12, while Anas Elkugia had 10.

The Vikings’ leading scorer, Shane Kaska, was held to nine points below his season average at 11.

The victory moved Eastlake (18-8) into a quarterfinal matchup with Kentwood (17-10) at 8:30 p.m., Thursday at the Tacoma Dome.

There’s no question, the Wolves hope to continue their wild ride to state — a place the program hasn’t been since 2003, or placed since 1999.

“Our goal was to get to state, then we had to readjust our goal to get some wins at state because we knew we could win,” Pericin said.

Bangasser thinks the possibilities are endless for his team — if they remember one thing.

“We try to emphasize being fear free,” he said. “We’ve said it before, it’s just playing basketball. It’s not stem-cell research.”