Another three by Sehy gave the Bulldogs their largest lead, 24-9, with 1:38 to play before halftime. The Spartans scored the final five points of the half, however, to trim the gap to 10 and cause some stress for Rincker.

“We took a couple quick shots, turned the ball over and gave them some momentum,” the veteran coach noted. “That was a 7-to-10-point swing. I was worried about that at halftime. I just knew they would make a push.”

Turns out, he was prophetic.

Oak Lawn scored two quick baskets to open the third period and the comeback was on. A three-pointer by Robert Wagner cut the margin to three and another from long range by Eduardo Chiquito tied the score at 30-30 with 2:52 left. It was still a tie game at the end of the quarter, 38-38.

“They picked up their pressure in that third quarter and let their defense set up their offense,” Rincker said. “We had to refocus on what we were doing. The kids did a good job of that for the fourth period.”

The Spartans were playing without their top scorer – Xavier Sulaiman. But they still have two very good guards – Corey Lee and Ayham Salah – that Rincker focused on in his game plan.

“We worked to take away or at least slow down No. 4 (Salah) and No. 0 (Lee),” he noted. “We put a couple guys on them to make their life tough, then hoped we could play 3-on-3 with their other guys and put pressure on them to score. The first half that worked beautifully.

“The second half, their defense picked up and No. 21 (Chiquito) hit some big shots,” Rincker added.

Chiquito finished with 12 points, while Salah had 10 and Lee was held to just 4.

Westendorf paced the Bulldogs with 15 points, while Fearday scored 11 and Koenig added 9. They shot 50 percent from the field, connecting on 19-of-38 attempts overall. They were 2-for-4 from three-point range and 14-of-22 from the free throw line.

“Ryan had another good game off the bench, Sehy hit that big turnaround jumper and Michael (Martelli) is playing very well right now,” Rincker said. “This was a really good team effort.”

The Bulldogs, now 10-4 on the season, are a bit of surprise to reach the semifinal round.

“You couldn’t say we expected to win these first two games, but we thought we could win,” Rincker noted. “On paper, we were the team that shouldn’t win, but we thought we had a chance if we could out-execute our opponent. I thought we did that both games. I am really proud of this team.”

Oak Lawn dipped to 1-1 in tourney play. The Spartans will be back in action tonight (Thursday) at 6 p.m. against Chicago Brooks. That game will be played at J.H. Griffin Gymnasium.