West Marshall senior guard Bella Borgos (20) drives around Union’s Lily Lorenzen (11) during the first half of last Saturday’s Class 3A Region 3 girls basketball quarterfinal game in State Center. PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

STATE CENTER — Lily Zahnd was, as the kids say, “cookin’.”

When a young West Marshall girls’ basketball fan yelled out to her during last Saturday’s Class 3A Region 3 quarterfinal game against Union Community, Zahnd most certainly was.

The Trojan senior scored her team’s first 10 points on her way to matching her career-high of 20 during West Marshall’s postseason opener — a 61-24 victory on Saturday night at West Marshall High School.

Zahnd was so locked in that she didn’t even hear the future Trojan hollering her praise.

“A lot of us were kind of nervous, even though we should win, but our pace was kind of slow in the beginning,” said the 5-foot-11 forward. “We were tense and tight and then it got better once we started scoring and doing our good things like normal.”

Zahnd got out and ran, and Union (2-21) couldn’t keep up. West Marshall (17-5) used its pace and pressure to bring the Knights’ season to an end after a back-and-forth start that saw Union leading 7-4.

The Trojans started attacking the post and using their height advantage, and a 13-0 run ensued. Zahnd scored the first six points of that spurt that saw West Marshall go from a 3-point deficit to a 17-7 lead.

It was a 15-0 Trojan surge to start the second quarter and a 26-4 period for West Marshall, which will host West Delaware (14-8) in the regional semifinals Wednesday night in State Center.

“With our team and our personnel, what we’re able to do on a nightly basis is just run the court, see what our advantages are and take advantage of that when we can,” said West Marshall head coach Cody Hackett. “Tonight was big on that. We knew he had a height advantage on them inside as well so we really tried to feed it into our posts and get our girls confidence in there.

“We knew as a staff if we had success there it was going to open up shots on the outside, too, so overall it’s a good night.”

After Zahnd scored six-straight in the lane to kick off the Trojans’ 13-0 run, Shelby Johnston got in on the scoring. Halle Jones followed with a 3-pointer and Bella Borgos banked an inbounds pass off an unsuspecting Union defender for a layup to make it 17-7 with 1 minute left in the first quarter.

West Marshall’s press turned up the pressure in the second quarter, creating nine Union turnovers and leading to fast-break opportunities for the Trojans. Borgos, Jones and Kinley Johnston added 3-pointers to the mix, and the Knights fell behind by 30 at halftime.

“Our press really worked well tonight,” Zahnd said. “We were able to trap them and get steals off that, and I think being able to make our baskets obviously helped us with the press and mess with them a little bit more and move momentum to our side.”

West Marshall scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter before getting deeper into its bench to stay rested and ready for the next round.

“We knew Union was going to get tired, we knew they didn’t play a lot of girls, so if we could get up and down the court, wear them out a little bit, we were going to be in a good spot by the end of it,” Hackett said. “It was a fun night and fun atmosphere and at the end of the day we’re moving on.”

For the Knights, senior guard Lily Lorenzen scored half of her team’s 24 points in her final game, while junior Reagan Glenn added six points in the Knights’ 11th consecutive loss.