There was no letdown leading to a 15-point deficit this time for St. Mary’s.

Unlike their regular seasons' final day meeting, St. Mary’s jumped on shorthanded Chaparral Thursday and didn’t back off until the fourth period started. In their previous meeting, St. Mary’s was disappointed that some of Chaparral’s best players didn’t play for undisclosed reasons.

Those players also didn’t participate in the first round of Thursday's Division I boys state game, but St. Mary’s didn’t come out flat again. It cruised to a 61-25 home win to advance to Saturday’s second round game at Mountain Ridge in Glendale.   

Chaparral took good shots against St. Mary’s 2-3 zone in the first period but didn’t hit the mark. Not so for St. Mary’s, which pounced in transition and in the paint behind Deshawn Wilson and KJ Hymes (25 combined points in the first half.).

St. Mary’s also pressed and used a 1-3-1 to keep Chaparral off balance. Wilson’s left-handed lay in put St. Mary’s up 16-8 at the end of the first period.

When Wilson spun around a defender to make a reverse layup in the second quarter to give his team a 33-12 advantage, St. Mary’s was well on its way to victory.   

Ball movement, not turning the ball over and rebounding, details St. Mary’s (16-11) has worked on down the stretch of its season, were well executed Thursday.  

“Hats off to Chaparral for having a good year,” St. Mary’s coach Ty Amundson said. “They beat some really good teams this year. But our kids came in focused to play. The stage is a little bit bigger than the last game of the regular season. Our guys were ready to play today.”