Last week, LaSalle College High's Troy Hockaday held John Bartram wing guard Tyrone Garland — a Virginia Tech signee and the No. 3 scorer in the history of Philadelphia  city high school basketball — to a total of eight points.

Consider it a fact that did not escape the notice of Hempfield star guard Christian Walck.

"He shut him down," the Black Knights senior said of Hockaday. "I knew he would match up with me. That shows a lot of respect."

A respect Walck further earned with a strong second half Wednesday night.

Scoring all 14 of his points after the break on 4-for-6 shooting from the field and 4-for-7 from the free throw line, Walck rallied the Knights from an eight-point deficit to a 41-32 win in a PIAA Class AAAA second round game at Coatesville High.

"He hit some big shots," Hockaday said. "And there was nothing we could do about it."

The win sends Hempfield (29-1) to Saturday's quarterfinal round — time and site to be announced — opposite Bethlehem Liberty (24-5), a 58-54 winner Wednesday night over York.

Explorers guard Eddie Mitchell, like Hockaday a Philadelphia Catholic League first team star, tied Walck for game honors with 14 points. They were the only two players to score in double figures.

"The first half, we controlled the game," said Hockaday, who scored nine following a scoreless first half and fouled out with 1:19 left. "In the second half, they pressured us, wouldn't let us run our offense."

"We weren't patient enough," Mitchell said. "We rushed our shots in the second half. They're very well-coached. They came out and adapted to what we were doing."

LaSalle coach Joe Dempsey agreed that Hempfield is well schooled. He also felt the Knights' experience — they start five seniors; the Explorers' four juniors — was crucial.

"We usually don't turn the ball over that much," he said of his District 12 champs' 12 giveaways, including five in the decisive fourth quarter. "Credit (Hempfield). They're well-coached, well-disciplined. They're more mature than us. More poised, more experienced."

And it was those intangibles —maturity, poise, experience — that Knights coach Warren Goodling referred to when he said his halftime speech had nothing to do with chalk talk.

"No Xs and Os," he stated. "It's all about intangibles. The ability to do what it takes to win."

The Knights showed that ability again Wednesday, though it took time to surface. Mitchell's pull-up jumper to start the second half gave the Explorers (20-6) an 18-10 lead, their biggest margin of the game.

Hockaday, who has scored more than 300 points this season and averages 14 per game, finally got untracked with a pair of driving layups midway through the third. Walck countered with his first points when he canned a jumper late in the quarter, then hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc.

The latter did more than just bring Hempfield to within a point at 23-22 heading into the fourth. It also fueled Walck's confidence.

"I started to get hot," he said.

The Explorers knew it. Dempsey said he told his team at halftime, "This is not a guy who is going to go down in the last game of his career without scoring."

Walck's three-point play to start the fourth gave Hempfield its first lead since early in the second quarter. LaSalle rallied and the game was tied until the 3:35 mark, when Ethan Strayer drilled a corner trey to put the Knights up, 30-27.

Due in part to the Explorers' poor free throw shooting — 1 of 6 in the fourth quarter; 2 of 10 for the game —and to the efforts of Mark Enoch, Taylor McDuffie and Zach Sheets, Hempfield expanded its lead in the final minute.

"They have a history," Goodling said of the Catholic League champs. "But so do we."

Wednesday, the Knights added another chapter.