BENTON — Down by seven points at halftime and reeling from a bad second quarter, Porters Chapel was right in its comfort zone.

PCA overcame the deficit with a dominant performance in the third quarter, and went on to advance to the semifinals of the MAIS Class A state tournament with a 50-47 victory over DeSoto School on Wednesday night.

It’s the first time in school history PCA’s boys’ team has advanced this deep into the state tournament. It will face the winner of tonight’s quarterfinal between Trinity or Immanuel Christian on Friday at 7:15 p.m. at Benton Academy.

“Crazy, isn’t it?” PCA coach E.J. Creel said as a happy but bewildered smile broke across her face. “The amazing thing is, I still don’t think we’ve played to our full potential.”

PCA (16-9) escaped the first round by overcoming a 15-point halftime deficit against Tri-County on Monday. That made the 25-18 lead Desoto (23-3) held after two quarters seem like nothing, even if it was the result of a dreadful eight minutes of basketball by the Eagles.

PCA went 1-for-11 from the field in the second quarter, with the only basket coming on a long jumper at the buzzer by Kawayne Gaston. Seven of the missed shots came on 3-pointers as the Eagles got away from the halfcourt offense that is their most effective set.

They went back to it in the third quarter and switched on the fly to a 3-2 zone defense to neutralize DeSoto’s top scorer Dylan Cruz. Cruz finished with only seven points, the Eagles outscored DeSoto 14-4 in the third quarter, and Matthew Warren’s 3-pointer with 1:40 to play gave them the lead for good at 32-29.

“We didn’t panic at all. We have downfalls sometimes and we can’t let it mess up our game,” said Gaston, who finished with a game-high 21 points, nine rebounds and five steals.

PCA began to pull away in the fourth quarter thanks to an ill-timed meltdown by DeSoto’s Blake Harper. He fouled Ted Brisco under the basket, then let a curse word fly after the whistle and was called for a technical. Brisco hit all four free throws to catapult PCA’s tenuous three-point lead to seven, 38-31. The Thunderbirds were playing catch-up the rest of the way and couldn’t.

“I just said make sure I do everything right. We needed them,” said Brisco, who went 9-for-10 from the foul line in the game and finished with 17 points.

Brisco and Gaston each hit a pair of free throws in the closing minutes to stretch the Eagles’ lead to 50-40 with 38 seconds left, but they still had to survive one last scare. DeSoto scored seven points in the remaining time, including five in the last 10 seconds. Cruz hit a 3-pointer and Grant Bonner put back another missed 3 after a turnover to cut it to 50-47 with 2 seconds to go. The final inbounds pass was deflected, but Gaston grabbed it as time expired to send PCA to the semifinals for the first time.

“It’s all if we want it now,” said PCA point guard Peter Harris, who scored five points. “We made it this far. I think we can beat anybody we play if we stay focused.”