MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- After a back-and-forth first half in which Brainerd led for nearly nine minutes, top-ranked Christ Presbyterian Academy shifted into a gear the Panthers simply don't have.
The Lions ultimately cruised to a 77-43 victory in the Class AA state basketball tournament quarterfinals Thursday at Middle Tennessee State University.
"They're legit," Brainerd coach Levar Brown said afterward, summing up his team's first experience against a CPA team that is looking to play for the state title for a fourth consecutive year.
The Lions won two straight before losing in last year's final on a buzzer beater and are now 141-11 over the past four seasons.
The Lions shot an incredible 19-of-23 (83 percent) from the field in the second half, while Brainerd made just 4 of 27 (15 percent) of its second-half shots. The Panthers were 1-of-15 on 3-point attempts.
"We couldn't make open shots," Brown said. "We worked our butts off in the first half to keep it close, but then it looked like our kids hit a wall and got tired. About halfway through the third quarter you could see we didn't have the same bounce in our legs.
"We didn't quit. We played hard for all 32 minutes, so I never questioned our effort. We just couldn't make shots, and they wore us down."
CPA (32-4) has won 20 of its last 21 games, including 12 straight, by double figures.
Brainerd, making its first state tourney appearance in six years, played aggressively from the early moments, scoring first and leading for all but 23 seconds of the first quarter.
CPA took the lead on a 3-pointer by eighth-grade point guard Tyger Campbell one minute into the second quarter and looked ready to pull away before halftime, building an eight-point advantage. But the Panthers (22-8) closed the final minute of the half on a 6-1 run and trailed by just four points as late as the midway point of the third quarter.
But that's when CPA took control, holding Brainerd without a field goal for 6:49 of the second half and outscoring the Panthers 27-5 during that stretch.
"Our guys trust each other and they trust the process," CPA coach Drew Maddux said. "We believe the run is going to come for us, but we've been in enough tournaments to know that first game is sometimes the toughest one and sometimes the run comes late instead of early.
"That's what happened today. It took a while to get the run going, but it finally came, thankfully."
Lions junior Braxton Blackwell, a state Mr. Basketball last year and again a finalist for the award, scored 12 of his game-high 31 points in the third quarter, and he added nine rebounds.
"He's a monster," said Brainerd post Da'V Moore, one of only three Panthers seniors. "He's a really big guy, and when he's in the air he doesn't miss shots.
"We played hard, so it was frustrating to not keep it closer, but I'm proud of our team for making it this far."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.