DANVILLE – Tim Lavin's already traveled to Danville High School each of the past two days. Turns out the Centennial basketball coach's commute to the site of this Class 3A regional tournament is only halfway done this week.

His top-seeded Chargers saw to that Tuesday night by pulling away from Urbana in the second half for a 62-46 semifinal victory.

The triumph moved the second-ranked and defending Class 3A state champions into Friday's title game. Before Lavin retakes his seat on the bench for that one, however, he'll take a seat in the stands tonight to scout the semifinal matchup between the host Vikings and Champaign Central. Just as he did Monday while watching Urbana (8-18) advance to a semifinal date against the Chargers (27-1).

Noting that Centennial already had played fellow Big 12 members Danville and Central twice apiece this season, Lavin said it's still worth the trip.

"Sometimes when you come, you see something maybe you didn't see the first time," the Charger coach said. "And maybe we'll see something."

In Centennial's postseason opener, Lavin saw an Urbana team his Chargers had defeated twice before, too, put up a strong fight well into the third quarter.

When Larry Green capped a 7-0 Tiger scoring run with a three-pointer, Centennial's lead was down to 34-31 with 3:44 left in the period.

"It's harder the third time around, and then you put into the equation that both teams could be playing for their last time," Lavin said. "To their credit, they went and got by us and got open shots."

But the Chargers responded with a run of their own, scoring 12 of the next 14 points to rebuild their lead to 46-33. Centennial's pair of 6-foot-8 players, Josh Piper and Jeff Johnson, combined for six points during the surge, and Urbana never got closer than eight points thereafter.

"Again, it's just size," said Urbana coach Vashoune Russell, whose rotation includes one player taller than 6-2. "They're just big. They're just tall.

"We had opportunities and, again, I think size just took over when we got it close."

The Chargers hurt Urbana from the outside, too, sinking 7 of 15 three-point shots. Guard Rayvonte Rice, who buried five threes, finished with a game-high 20 points.

Johnson scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. Piper scored all eight of his points after halftime.

"We relied on too many jump shots the first half," Lavin said. "Second half, we started going down low and it worked out pretty well."

Junior guard Deonta Jones scored 17 points after racking up a career-high 24 in Urbana's regional opener against Rantoul. Jones was the Tigers' leading scorer (or co-leader) in each of its last six games.

"The last couple of games he has definitely had the killer mentality, that I'm not done yet mentality," Russell said.