Al Christianson/Special to the MDN St. John’s Dalton Prouty (23, right) takes a shot over Wyndmere-Lidgerwood’s Aaron Bohnenstingl (23, left) in the first round of the Class B boys basketball state tournament at the Bismarck Event Center.

BISMARCK — Taking care of the ball, forcing turnovers and a fourth-quarter surge carried No. 2-seeded St. John (24-1) over Wyndmere-Lidgerwood (21-3) Thursday evening in the first round of the Class B boys basketball state tournament in Bismarck.

The Woodchucks won 62-47 to advance to the state semifinals this evening at the Bismarck Event Center.

“The first things that came out of my mouth in the locker room today was coming out and sharing the ball, pushing the ball when we had opportunities, keep them off the glass,” St. John coach Steve Poitra said. “And, the main thing, I really preached before we came out was to play our style of defense. Our style of defense is get out and trap, push you into places that you’re uncomfortable with.”

The Woodchucks did just that.

St. John turned the ball over only once in the second half and they were able to induce 22 turnovers during the game using a full-court press at times to fluster the Warbirds.

Many of the takeaways came late in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“Ninety-nine percent of our offense comes out of our defense,” Poitra said. “If we aren’t playing good defense, then our nerves are tight. We get a little shaky and tentative, but that second half we really got after it.”

In a feeling each other out first quarter where turnovers kept the pace of the game high, St. John opened a nine-point lead, 17-8.

St. John’s Bradley Defender drew an and-one opportunity by using a pump fake to get his defender in the air and Mr. Basketball finalist Kyler McGillis sunk a jumper at the elbow to beat the first quarter buzzer.

McGillis scored 14 points in the first half and finished with a game-high 21 and six steals.

“Kyler McGillis and Dalton Prouty are going to take care of the ball night in and night out,” Poitra said. “Everything runs through those two guys and they do a good job of doing what they are supposed to do.”

Evan Braaten, who led the Warbirds with 15 points, kept crashing the boards hard and helped Wyndmere/Lidgerwood outscore the Woodchucks 14-12 in the second quarter.

Wyndmere/Lidgerwood forward Aaron Bohnenstingl was also a force, but couldn’t get out of his own way at times. He finished with a rare triple-double with 10 points, 12 rebounds and 10 turnovers.

An emphatic block on a fast break by St. John’s Dylan Davis had the Woodchucks holding a 29-22 lead at halftime.

“Second half we did a lot better job of boxing out and keeping them off the glass,” Poitra said. “That’s where a lot of our opportunities came from. We rebounded and got running right away.”

After both teams combined to go 0-for-13 behind the arc in the first half, Prouty made the first 3-pointer of the contest to start the second half.

The Woodchucks senior guard scored 15 points in the second half to finish with 19 for the game.

Yet, the Warbirds outscored St. John again, 19-14, in the third quarter and grabbed a 45-43 lead early into the fourth following a pair of baskets by Braaten.

It was the first time Wyndmere/Lidgerwood had held the lead since scoring the first basket of the game, 2-0.

St. John, however, finished the game on a dominating 19-2 run. Prouty had six straight points at one point to swing the momentum clearly in the Woodchucks’ favor.

“It was huge to get a good run going right away because we knew we had to force some turnovers to get some easy buckets,” Prouty said. “We struggled a little bit to shoot, but we will be ready tomorrow.”

Prouty and the Woodchucks get No. 3-seeded Bishop Ryan (24-2) in the semifinals.

Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. this evening.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.