BROCKPORT — Niagara Falls is going back to Glens Falls, and as is often the case, they did it with defense.

The Wolverines used a 15-5 third quarter and got 27 points and 11 steals from senior leader Kelvin Agee to break away from Section V (Rochester area) champion Greece Athena, 66-56, Saturday night before an estimated 1,000 at Brockport State — part of an all-day announced attendance of 3,558.

Far West Regional champion Niagara Falls heads to Glens Falls next weekend for the state public school final four. It is the sixth trip to the final four in the nine years the school has been in existence since the merger of LaSalle and the old Niagara Falls High in 2000.

“That’s when we really turned it up on defense,” Agee said of the third quarter. “I was able to anticipate and got a lot of steals and that’s when we broke it up and everybody got in the game. Everybody went to the boards, everbody played ‘D’ on their man—that’s how we got on a run and that’s how that we broke it open.”

Niagara Falls (23-0) will play in the state semifinals at 2:15 p. m. Saturday at the Glens Falls Civic Center. The opponent will be Christian Brothers Academy (21-4) of Syracuse, which beat Albany’s Christian Brothers Academy, 50-45, in the Central Regional game.

Agee not only finished one rebound short of a triple-double (nine), his point output gave him a career point total of 1,006. Junior Davon Marshall had 12 points, senior Michael Crumpton had 12 points and nine rebounds while sophomore Kenny Stokes had 10.

Senior Willie Pantoja led Athena with 17 points.

Falls is famous for its defense, but it was that much more effective since Athena (20-5) was playing without its scoring leader, 5-foot-9 junior guard Casey Sheehan, who sat out the much of the final three quarters with a finger injury. Sheehan finished with six points.

“I think a kid came down and tried to hit the ball but hit his hand,” said Athena coach Jim Johnson. “If it were his right hand we might have tried to send him back in but it was tough with him being a lefty. He couldn’t even dribble.

“He’s our main guy who can break them down off the dribble, which took us out of sync. The third quarter they really bottled us up. We really turned it over and didn’t get any good looks.”

With Sheehan sitting on the bench with his left hand wrapped, Niagara Falls had several steals turn into transition baskets in the third quarter which finished with Falls up, 45-33.

“I told the guys at halftime that we needed to step it up in the second half,” said Niagara Falls coach Giulio Colangelo. “We took advantage of a couple of guys that they had out in the second half and we were able to prevail.

“[Sheehan] is an excellent ball player. That kid of took them out of their offense a little more. We were able to get more ball pressure and we were able to have them turn the ball over, and that’s how we play defense.”

Niagara Falls took a 30-28 lead at halftime thanks to a last-second threepointer by Marshall. Athena led, 12-9, after one quarter.