Victory was at their fingertips.

For 31 minutes of 32 minutes of regulation, Eastlake led Woodinville in Tuesday’s opening round KingCo 4A playoff matchup.

In the most important minute — the final of the fourth quarter — the Wolves struggled to hang on, eventually falling to the Falcons 56-53 in overtime.

“I’m just disappointed for the guys, they played so hard, and they played so well for so long,” Eastlake head coach Pat Bangasser said.

With the Wolves up 50-48, and 15 seconds remaining, the Falcons’ Taylor Tarabochia pulled down a long offensive rebound, drove into the lane and knotted the score with a lay-up and a foul. His free throw missed, as did Eastlake junior Connor Iarola’s scoop shot at the buzzer.

From there, the overtime period belonged to Woodinville.

Eastlake went cold, missing its first seven attempts in the 4-minute extra period. Woodinville hit two of its three attempts — both three-pointers. None of those shots was larger than defensive specialist Ziad Aziz rose up and drilled a three with 4 seconds left, putting the Falcons up 56-53.

Forced to go the distance of the court, and with just three Woodinville fouls, Eastlake was unable to get a look in the final seconds.

“They did a nice job of fouling,” Bangasser said. “We got to half-court at 2.7 (seconds), there’s not a lot you can do there.”

The Wolves led nearly the entire game. The Falcons carried a brief, 14-11 lead in the first quarter, but Eastlake’s Chad Marxen banked in a half-court shot at the buzzer to knot the game, 14-14.

Eastlake used the big shot to go on a 12-3 second-quarter run, eventually taking a 31-25 halftime lead. The Wolves pushed their advantage to as many as nine twice. Iarola’s deep three-pointer with 4:36 remaining in the fourth quarter, bumped Eastlake’s lead to 48-40.

A slew of turnovers, combined with key offensive rebounds, however, allowed Woodinville to inch back in the game.

Eastlake was led by Iarola’s 14 points — 12 of which came off three-pointers. The KingCo 4A’s leading scorer, Michael Russo, scored 13 points, but was held scoreless in the second half. Dillon Pericin scored 10 points and had eight big assists.

Woodinville was led by Tarabochia’s 16 points. Maxx Forde and Aziz scored 13 and 10, respectively.

The Wolves, who suffered a similar overtime loss to the Falcons on Dec. 15, still has a shot to make the state tournament — the path just got a little tougher. They need to win four games in the losers’ bracket to reach state.

“I told the guys it’s a team goal, it’s a team destination,” Bangasser said.

Eastlake starts its run at 4:45 p.m., Friday against Ballard at Juanita High School. Woodinville advanced to face No. 1 seed Skyline at 8:15 p.m., Friday at Juanita.