Did anybody think THIS would happen?
Actually yes. The kids wearing Blazer Blue and gold.
JoVonte Peals told his team after sectionals that they would not lose again. So far he has been right.
Using balanced scoring, a ferocious rebounding attack, and dead-eye free-throw shooting, the Blazer Express rolled over Liberty Christian 72-61 to capture their first Semistate win in school history.
But this team is not close to being done as they head for Indianapolis to do something even more incredible - compete and possibly win a state championship for boy's basketball.
Richie Mitchell and Ryan Fazekas finished with 15 points apiece, while Braxton Miller added 12 and Nate Flores added 11.
Biggest thing facing the Blazers was not a lead at the half, but a deficit in rebounding. They allowed an opponent to rebound them in the first half. Not acceptable.
So everybody crashed the glass even more and finished with the edge 45-41 with each team grabbing 21 offensive rebounds. Malcom Reed, Tyshaun Smallwood, and Fazekas fished with five rebounds apiece. Mitchell and Miller added five rebounds as a tandem and Flores grabbed four.
One of the other keys to the game - as it has been throughout the tournament run - free throws. Marquette finished 21-26 from the stripe while limiting the Lions of Liberty Christian to 12 free throws attempted with nine makes.
"Our guard play is absolutely the key to any game because once we get a lead we can control the tempo and the basketball" said winning coach Donovan Garletts.
"But really the inside play from Malcom Reed and Tyshaun and JoVonte (Peals) were huge tonight. They got a lot of big boards, this team averages 30 rebounds a game with is an enormous amount of rebounds. We beat them on the boards which was the most important part of the game."
"It was our defensive intensity. We came out started boxing out, we got to hole and statrted getting easy baskets" said junior forward Ryan Fazekas.
Franklin Nunn led all scorers with 20 points in a losing effort for Liberty Christian. Ben Bowen was next with 12 while Chris Nunn added 11. The Lions conclude their season at 20-7.
The Blazers will face the Vikings of Barr-Reeve at Banker's Life Fieldhouse at 10:30am ET/9:30am CT. ASN will be there and will begin our coverage at 9:30am ET with an hour-long pregame show and you can Listen LIVE via our website and via TuneIn
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