DANVILLE – Nothing about the first half of Wednesday night's Class 1A boys' basketball semifinal game at Schlarman gave an accurate indication of what to expect by game's end.

Chrisman's shooters came out and drained 5 of 6 three-point shots, accounting for the team's first 15 points.

A Fisher squad that had fallen to the Cardinals by 18 points in a previous game fought to a 22-22 draw with 90 seconds left in the first half.

The rest of the game?

Chrisman made two of its final nine three-point tries and 2 of 11 second-half free throws, yet pulled away from the Bunnies 59-32 to move into the state's Sweet 16 and Friday's sectional championship game against Windsor.

"We were out of focus," said Derrick McCormick, who hit two of the early treys. "We thought it would be an easy game, but Fisher showed they wanted to fight."

Scoring leader Cody Owen hit two early three-pointers but scored only two more points thereafter. It didn't matter as Nathan Ross (16 points) and Wyatt Humrichous (13 points) picked up the slack.

"We had a horrible first half," Ross said. "Maybe one of the worst of the season. We turned up the intensity defensively the second half."

Chrisman led at the break 27-22 thanks to a rebound basket by Trevor Burmood and a three-point play from Ross.

"Every team has mental lapses," Humrichous said, "and we had one, but we listened to the advice of our coaches, dug deep and pulled it out."

Burmood's rebound basket began a 23-1 run by Chrisman.

"I'm glad we played a good second half," Chrisman coach Greg Gisinger said. "I hope this gives us momentum."

As much as he stressed that Fisher, which starts three underclassmen, was an improved team from December, Gisinger said there was nothing like his players seeing it to become believers.

"We had a letdown," he said. "The whole town was telling us how great we are. We thought we could coast. They played harder than us the first half and we did not guard well, but we picked up the intensity, put our egos aside and they changed things the second half."

Ross scored eight third-quarter points and Humrichous six to lead the Cardinals (26-5).

"Our fans were great," Ross said. "We had people leave to come to the game before the players did."

Ross and Travis Burmood grabbed six rebounds apiece.

Paul Perrero led Fisher (17-15) with 10 points. Matt Elkins had seven rebounds.

"Defensively, Chrisman took us out of a lot of things we wanted to do," said Fisher coach Ron Ragle, whose team shot 26.1 percent from the field. "We're a growing program and getting here was big for what we're trying to build.

"We graduate three seniors, but we have four juniors back who had good playing time experience. We're a little disappointed the way we finished, but a lot of teams would have liked to have been here."

Elkins, Trey Rogers and Cory Clifton are the seniors.