Understandably, when Lancaster Mennonite walked off the court at the end of the third quarter, there was a level of nervousness in its stride.

Delone Catholic had just turned what was an 11-point Blazers lead midway through the quarter into a tie game in a span of four minutes. But the Blazers did manage to regain some momentum in the closing minutes of the quarter and it carried over into the fourth.

That's when Corey Leonard scored six straight points and Mennonite scored the first eight overall, which powered the Blazers (19-6) to a 68-57 win over Delone in a District Three Class AA boys' basketball semifinal game Wednesday night at the Giant Center.

"I felt amazing," said Leonard, who finished with nine points in the final quarter and 13 overall. "I was so pumped. It's the first time like forever that we made it to the district finals."

When Mennonite, the top seed, faces second-seeded and two-time defending district champion Trinity (a 62-39 winner over Hanover in Wednesday's other semifinal) Friday night at 6:45 back in Hershey, it will be the Blazers' first title game appearance since they won the Class AAA crown in 1997.

"It's great to be back," said Mennonite coach Geoff Groff. "The fact that we're playing here means we're winning games. This is what you play for."

Playing only their second game in 15 days, the Blazers were relatively sharp. Despite some early turnover trouble (seven in the first quarter), Mennonite battled to a 14-14 draw at the end of the first quarter.

Up 19-18 in the second, the Blazers scored nine straight to push their lead to 28-18 with 2:44 left in the half.

"We had some ups and downs," said Blazers forward Phil Yoder, who had eight points and eight rebounds. "Fortunately we had more ups than the other team."

Mennonite sank 9-of-12 free throws in the second quarter and eventually took a 32-25 halftime lead. That lead grew to 38-27 when the Blazers opened the second half with three straight buckets, one by Yoder and a pair by Lon Lapp, who scored 14 points.

Delone, the No. 4 seed, missed its first three shots and had two quick turnovers.

"Our logo is play hard, play smart, play together," explained Squires coach Jim Dooley. "I think we went 0-for-3."

"I thought they played harder than we did, which is a very difficult thing to say," he added.

The Squires did respond, though, by going on a 13-2 run, including 10 straight at one point, to knot the game, 40-40, with 2:39 left in the third quarter. A Yoder basket stopped the run and Dean Royal knocked down a trey to put Mennonite ahead by five before settling for a 45-42 edge heading into the fourth.

"We just said don't panic, we still have the lead and they still have to catch us," said Groff, of the speech during the quarter break. "They made their run, now it's time for us to get back out there and make our run."

Leonard triggered the run with three straight buckets in the first 1:59 of the quarter.

"We kept saying we have to get to the basket," said Groff. "He did a great job of getting to the basket and did a great job of finishing."

"When you're executing on offense, it makes it that much harder for the team that's losing to catch up," he added.

In this case, it made it impossible.

Lapp added another basket which extended the Blazers' lead back to 53-42 with 4:55 left. Mennonite eventually led by 13 points when Leonard sank a free throw with 46 seconds left.

The Blazers were 13-for-16 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. Royal was a perfect 6-for-6 and nine of his game-high 17 points came from the line.

The Squires got no closer than 57-49 with 2:21 left to go.

At that point, the Blazers stride looked a little different.