The Rockets were playing three freshmen in the program's first regional appearance since consecutive district titles in 2004 and 2005. But, young or not, Matisi's charges were well aware of the challenge ahead of them before they walked into the Perry High School gymnasium to play defending state champion Hiland.

Turns out the Hawks were everything Matisi imagined -- and more.

Karli Mast hit five 3-pointers in the second quarter after Hiland's defensive pressure made the game lopsided in the first quarter and Hiland advanced to its sixth-straight regional final with a 69-36 victory over the Rockets. The Hawks will play Cleveland Heights Lutheran East, a 57-55 winner over Mogadore, for a trip to their fifth state Final Four in six years.

"We sort of prioritized things at the beginning of the week, what we wanted to make important to us," Matisi said. "But we didn't have two or three weeks to work with. The first two days we spent going against our varsity boys and all we did was press break just to try and simulate what they do. Yesterday, we tried -- there just weren't enough days in the week."

Even with the press simulator, the Rockets (20-5) had some issues against the live-action Hawks.

Lowellville turned the ball over on the first six trips down the floor and didn't get its first shot up until the 3:15 mark. The Rockets finally scored with 1:03 left in the first quarter. By then Hiland, which wasn't as efficient in the first quarter as it would be later, had scored the game's first 14 points and would lead 16-4 after a quarter.

As far as negative situations go for the Rockets, that was just the Titanic raising its anchor.

Hiland (24-1) led 20-8 before Mast became Lowellville's iceberg. The first 3-pointer she hit in the game was innocent enough. But, the next three were crashing waves of their own. The four triples came within 87 seconds of each other in the middle of the second quarter and turned what was a nice 20-8 game into a 32-12 runaway. Once McKenzie Miller hit the fifth of Hiland's six 3-pointers in the quarter for a 35-13 Hawk lead, Lowellville was never closer than 20.

"Karli did her usual thing," Hawks coach Dave Schlabach said. "She's a senior playing very much like a senior. The thing I liked was that when she got the hot hand, our girls did a good job of finding her. We ran our stuff and delivered the passes on time."

The regional semifinal was a bit like last year's against East Canton. Hiland was good early, sprinted off the floor at halftime while its opponent wasn't fully off the bench before the last Hawk was off the floor and kept running away in the second half.

Still, there were things the Hawks will discuss today getting ready for Lutheran East. They didn't take care of the ball as well as they'd like in the first half and were much more hands-oriented at the defensive end than they'd like.

Because the Hawks pride themselves on being able to sink opponents in duels of attrition, the extra fouls in the first half were particularly harmful. While the depth might give the appearance that Hiland can afford to foul more than other teams, which is generally true, free throws tend to grind games to a halt. That is decidedly un-Hawk.

"If we didn't foul 15 times in the first half, we would really have been effective," Schlabach said. "We always talk about every trip to the free throw line being an extra timeout for that team. We gave them six or seven extra timeouts in that first half and a chance to rest and stop the momentum. We play a lot of kids and when you get a chance to walk to the free throw line, it doesn't matter. To me, that was the negative. I thought we played hard but we didn't play position. The next game will be a whole different type of athlete."

Mast finished with 26 points to lead Hiland. Noelle Yoder, who showed signs of breaking out of a recent shooting slump, went for 11 points and 10 assists. Missy Mast and Miller had seven points each.