Lakeville North led its section final against Rochester Mayo by 14 points with six minutes to play.

The Panthers won the game by one.

Lakeville North coach Andy Berkvam noted his team is playing good basketball right now, particularly on the defensive end. But it needs to do so for all 36 minutes.

The Panthers did just that in the Class 4A quarterfinals, downing Brainerd 47-20 at Williams Arena

Lakeville North will meet top-seeded Maple Grove in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Thursday, a primetime televised date.

“Nobody knows you’re in the state tournament a lot of times until you play on TV, which is kind of sad,” Berkvam said. “But that’s just how it is.”

Don’t the Panthers know it. They’ve been perennial participants in the state tournament but have fallen in the first round in each of their previous five trips.

The most recent of those defeats came a year ago, when the Panthers dropped their quarterfinal on a buzzer-beater to … Maple Grove.

Berkvam noted in the postgame press conference after that loss that it was the hardest one he has ever endured. Lakeville North will have its shots at vengeance Thursday, in more ways than one.

The Panthers played the Crimson in their second game of the season. Maple Grove led by two late in the first half. But that advantage ballooned to 16 early in the second stanza.

“And we never recovered. Against a team like that, who has probably the best player in 4A (in Michigan State commit Jordan Ode), you can’t have lapses.”

The Panthers will have to play good basketball from start to finish. Frankly, they’ll have to play like they did Wednesday, when they held Brainerd to a stifling 5-for-41 shooting from the floor — including 0 for 12 from deep — while forcing 17 turnovers and limiting the Warriors on the offensive glass.

Fifth-seeded Brainerd has had the size advantage in most of its games this season, but the Warriors hadn’t seen a team with not just the height, but also the length the Panthers possess. And Lakeville North made Brainerd feel it.

“Berk always tells us to win at anything we do — sealing up on the elbows, in the post, just being really aggressive,” said senior Aduke Ojullu, who paced the Panthers with 13 points, nine rebounds and two steals. “(We were) going at them in the beginning of the game and making them feel our presence.”

Now can they repeat the performance against Maple Grove?

“We’ve got to slow down, play defense, especially in the post. We’ve got to finish shots,” Ojullu said. “I feel like sometimes we start off strong and kind of ease up. … We’ve got to play a whole game — defensively, offensively, everyone.”