Lawrence High School senior Anthony Bonner (15) drives to the basket in a 64-46 Lions win against Wichita South in a quarter-final game in the state 6A tournament Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at Koch Arena in Wichita.

Wichita ? Lawrence High’s boys basketball players were fired up for their first game at the Class 6A state tournament on Wednesday. Maybe too excited.

The Lions missed their first four shots, including a few layups.

But once they settled down, they cruised to a 64-46 victory over Wichita South at Wichita State University’s Koch Arena. The Lions will face sixth-seeded Shawnee Mission North in the semifinals at 8:15 p.m. Friday.

Following their cold start from the floor, the second-seeded Lions made five of their next six shots to take a lead they would never give up. Junior point guard Justin Roberts led the way, scoring 15 of his game-high 24 points in the first half by draining three triples and finishing a few drives at the rim.

“He’s one of the quickest guards in the state,” senior guard John Barbee said of Roberts. “So that’s what he does. When he’s on fire, he’s on fire. And we need him when he’s on fire.”

After leading by seven at halftime, the Lions pulled away with a 12-1 run over the final four minutes of the third quarter to take an 18-point advantage. Roberts started the stretch with a floater and senior guard Anthony Bonner followed his lead with six points, including a right-handed slam on a fast-break.

Bonner, who missed last Friday’s sub-state title game with a mild concussion, finished with 19 points as he danced around Wichita South’s 2-3 zone with mid-range pull-up jumpers off of the dribble.

“I thought they were solid at both ends,” LHS coach Mike Lewis said of his two leading scorers. “I thought Justin did a nice job being a floor leader. AB (Bonner) hit some big shots. I like the way Justin was patient on his drives and I just liked the spacing that Justin created. He really set us up with some pretty good space.”

Though the Titans (15-8) limited drives with their zone, the Lions were more than willing to make the extra pass to find the open shooter. Bonner and senior Ben Rajewski added three-pointers to help the Lions shoot 5-for-9 (56 percent) from deep in the first half.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Bonner, who tied Barbee with a team-high three assists. “I really missed it. I almost forgot how fun and special it is to play with these guys. They’re such a great group of guys and we’re such a great family that it’s great to be back out there with them.”

The Lions (22-1) struggled to contain Wichita South’s 6-foot-3, 275-pound big man Darren Lewis, who lowered his shoulder through contact for a team-high 14 points on seven layups. But they limited him in the second half with double-teams in the low post to force steals, which helped LHS jumpstart its transition offense.

Barbee grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds to go along with seven points, while junior forward Price Morgan added eight points and eight rebounds. Morgan scored on a buzzer-beating putback to end the first half.

“One of the things that we talked about in the pre-game was to box out because they’re going to be a crashing-the-boards type of team,” said Barbee, who broke out of an 0-for-6 slump from the field with a left-handed dunk following a steal by junior Anthony Harvey at the end of the third quarter. “I just made sure I did my part by boxing my man out.”

The Lions scored on five straight possessions midway through the fourth quarter, with layups by Bonner, Barbee and Roberts, to take an eventual 22-point advantage with 4:11 remaining. They emptied their bench in the final minutes.

“It went really well for us,” Roberts said. “We knew we had to come out with some fire, play some defense and hit some good shots. That’s what it took to win.”

WICHITA SOUTH (46)

Matthew Donart 3-6 0-2 6, Daran Lee 1-5 5-9 7, Kaden Griffin 0-1 3-4 3, Dawson Gunter 1-6 0-2 3, Darren Lewis 7-10 0-2 14, TJ Turner 3-8 1-2 8, Jariah Taylor 1-2 0-0 3, Jayceon Harris 0-0 0-0 0, Brandon Brickhouse 0-2 0-0 0, Deahrian Manning 0-1 0-0 0, Lorenzo Ruffin 0-0 2-4 2, Rayquan Cunningham 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-41 11-25 46.

LAWRENCE (64)

Justin Roberts 7-12 7-9 24, Price Morgan 3-5 2-4 8, Ben Rajewski 2-4 0-1 5, Anthony Bonner 7-12 4-4 19, John Barbee 2-9 3-4 7, Logan Applegate 0-0 1-2 1, Anthony Harvey 0-1 0-0 0, Fred Brou 0-0 0-0 0, Tae Shorter 0-0 0-0 0, Kyle Hoffman 0-0 0-0 0, Jackson Mallory 0-0 0-0 0, Kobe Buffalomeat 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-43 17-24 64.

South 12 11 7 16 — 46

Lawrence 14 16 18 16 — 64

Three-point field goals: Wichita South 3-10 (Gunter, Turner, Taylor); Lawrence 5-14 (Roberts 3, Rajewski, Bonner). Turnovers: Wichita South 8, Lawrence 6.