Hopkins is one step away from its ultimate goal thanks to playing in its comfort zone.

Thursday against White Bear Lake, that seemed to be anything the Royals tried.

Against the Bears, last year’s Class 4A runners-up, Hopkins used a combination of consistency and clock management to take a 52-34 victory at Target Center.

Fast or slow, the top-seeded Royals dictated the pace of play against the Bears, who came up short of their second upset in as many days.

When Hopkins wanted to stall, it did without protest. The Royals held the ball for the final 1:01 of the first half to take a 31-15 lead at the break.

When Hopkins needed speed, it got that, too. The Royals went ahead by 20 points with six minutes to go in the game when Nia Coffey stole the ball at midcourt, caught up with it at the NBA three-point arc, then drove in on the hoop for a layup.

“We wanted to control tempo, no question about it,” Royals coach Brian Cosgriff said. “We’re pretty athletic and pretty deep, and we feel like we can do that on a nightly basis.”

That showed on both ends of the court.

Ebony Livingston finished with a game-high 15 points for the Royals. Coffey had 14 and Brianna Williams 11.

In an attempt to counter, White Bear Lake played a zone defense unfamiliar to the Royals, but offensively it had 30 turnovers. Eight of those came off of Royals steals.

“They were just a little bit too good for us,” Bears coach Jeremy Post said. “They got to be themselves, we tried to be something we’re not. Advantage: Hopkins.”