BROOKINGS — The Trojans are moving on.

No. 2 Parkston held off No. 7 Centerville in a defensive battle, 46-39, advancing to the state semifinals for the first time since 2012.

“I’m just really excited, kind of speechless to be honest,” said junior guard Berkley Ziebart. “This whole week we’ve been just working on defense, we talk about defense every single day and I think it showed off tonight.”

Ziebart was a catalyst in the Trojans’ quarterfinal win, pouring in 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting from the floor with seven rebounds, three steals and a block.

Ziebart says most of her performance at Thursday’s game inside First Bank & Trust Arena can be credited to the adrenaline rush of the first state tournament game.

“It was just a lot of adrenaline with it,” Ziebart said. “Whenever we needed a big shot, I think we just knew what to do, and sometimes it’s to get me the ball and go to work. We’ve been doing a lot of different things this week and running over all of our plays so I think we just did it well tonight.”

“She’s just so calm,” Parkston head coach Cole Knippling said of Ziebart. “You never see an ounce of frustration in her face. She goes up strong and takes contact every single time whether she gets the call or not. Proud of her, big spot and she played outstanding.”

And the high-stakes jitters were flying early and often for both teams. A slugfest of an opening eight minutes ended at a 7-7 tie, and Knippling says the girls needed a mental reset to calm down and get back to the basics.

“This environment is tough, it takes awhile to get settled and everything we talked and wanted to run, we got to the under five (minutes) timeout in the first quarter and I said ‘We haven’t ran a single thing we actually practiced yet’,” Knippling said. “We started doing that and good things happened.”

Knotted at 11 with under two minutes left in the half, Ziebart got to work and piloted a 6-0 run with three-straight baskets to give Parkston the 17-11 halftime advantage.

While the Trojans had the lead, the biggest stat of the first half was holding Centerville’s standout sophomore Izzie Eide to just three points on 1-of-8 shooting from the floor. Junior guard Morgan Maxwell was assigned to Eide the whole game, and found a way to shut down the all-stater in the opening 16 minutes.

“Morgan Maxwell is never going to get the statistical credit she deserves because she doesn’t score them herself, she erases them from the other team’s best players,” Knippling said of Maxwell. “While our offense was struggling, it made their offense struggle a little more.”

Out of halftime the Trojans grew a seven-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Centerville got within four points on  multiple occasions throughout the final frame, but the Trojans continued its defense and rebounding philosophy to come away with the win.

The Trojans held the Tornadoes to just 26.5% shooting from the floor and 3-for-22 from beyond the arc, while winning the rebounding battle 41-31.

“It’s an effort stat, it’s a heart stat, and I just thought we gave tremendous effort to the boards,” Knippling said of winning the rebounding battle. “You could right down the line and everyone of them grabbed a couple that I thought were big spots.”

Parkston’s Keeara Oakley finished with a double-double with 13 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two blocks while Kennedy Knippling added five points as well.

Eide finished with 22 points and eight rebounds for the Tornadoes, Lydia Austin added seven points and four boards while Peyton Hansen collected seven points and four rebounds in the loss.

Centerville will play Bennett County Friday at 12:45 p.m. in the consolation semifinals.

Parkston will match up with No. 6 Harding County at 6:45 p.m. following an upset win over Bennett County, 58-50.

“Whoever we get, we’re going to study them well and get to work,” Ziebart said.