Featured image courtesy of Tanner Colvin

The ironwomen of Sacred Heart march on.

With all five starters going the whole way, the third-seeded Sacred Heart girls pulled away with a big fourth quarter to knock off No. 3 seed St. Mary’s Colgan, 52-42, Tuesday in a Class 2A state quarterfinal at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

“That’s never the expectation,” Sacred Heart coach Carl Hines said of going exclusively with his starters. “But those girls have done it before, and I thought we kind of owned the fourth quarter even though we didn’t give them a break.”

With the victory, the Knights improved to 23-4 and advance to Thursday’s 4 p.m. semifinal against No. 2 seed and defending state champion Moundridge at White Auditorium in Emporia.

“This was the first time for our group going through the pomp and circumstance,” Hines said of the Knights’ first state tournament appearance since 2009. “Colgan had been to seven straight, and I think our girls were kind of wide-eyed at first.”

“But one thing it didn’t affect was our defense.”

Indeed, Sacred Heart held a Colgan team that had scored 91 points in its sub-state final to 32.5% shooting and four 3-pointers while forcing 15 turnovers.

The Knights took control against Colgan with a 7-0 run early in the fourth quarter. Freshman Emmy Lee’s 3-pointer broke a 36-36 tie and junior center Edyn Sharpton scored twice inside off assists from Lee and Nicole Richards to go up 43-36 with just under five minutes left.

Colgan (23-3) never got closer than five the rest of the way.

“We made a nice run and I thought they got a little tired,” Hines said of the defensive effort against Colgan. “We did a really good job on (Jakayla Davis) in the fourth quarter.”

“They made some free throw, but I thought at the end of the third quarter and the fourth quarter we found our footing and we were pretty good defensively.”

Offensively, the Knights shot 42.2% from the floor and were 9 of 12 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to protect the lead. That included six straight from Skylar Douglas, Emmy Lee and Addie Lee in the final 1:12.

Emmy Lee led the Knights with 15 points, including three 3-pointers, while Sharpton made all six of her shots for 12 points and Addie Lee added 11. Douglas had nine points, seven rebounds and six assists, with Richards contributing nine rebounds and three assists.

Emmy Lee also drew the defensive assignment on Davis, whose game-high 22 points were nine below her season average. Janessa Davis added 15 points for Colgan.

For the Knights, they face a Moundridge team that they beat, 47-41, on Jan. 31 in the final of the Hillsboro Trojan Classic. Moundridge (24-2) advanced to the semifinals with a 63-48 victory over Valley Heights.

Thursday’s other semifinal matches No. 1 seed Ellinwood (26-1) against No. 4 Eureka (23-2) at 2 p.m. Ellinwood advanced with a 55-48 quarterfinal victory over Rossville and Eureka beat Oakley, 51-45.