For a few minutes you may see them. Then you don't.

In the blink of an eye --  more like three minutes of game clock -- St. Mary's girls basketball team sped away from Hamilton Thursday night as it has done to a couple dozen teams over the last few years. A 20-0 run by the Lady Knights to end the first quarter turned a 10-7 deficit to a 27-10 lead and ultimately ended in a 74-55 win in the Division I semifiinals at Wells Fargo Arena.

St. Mary's (28-1) will play in the Division I (big-school) final for the fifth year in a row on Saturday Feb. 23 against Pinnacle at 2 p.m. at Jobing.com Arena in search of its third consecutive championship. St. Mary's has won 59 consecutive games against Arizona teams dating back to January 2011. That last Arizona loss was to Pinnacle.

Eight points each from Chantel Osahor and Chloe Johnson and seven from Courtney Ekmark in the first eight minutes took some of the early steam out of Hamliton. Hamilton (27-6) managed to lead most of the first five minutes, but like the Warner Brothers' Roadrunner, St. Mary's went beep, beep and was gone.

Osahor scored 10 points in the first half (finishing with 15 and 13 rebounds) along with seven rebounds and six assists from her high-post perch. Osahor, signed to play this fall at Washington, was her usual self, threading the needle on cutters to the basket or hitting an open player from beyond the arc. if noone was open, she'd launch her patented set-shot. Two of those Thursday were from 3-point range. St. Mary's shot 50 percent from the field in the opening half and outrebounded Hamlton, 25-11.  

Ekmark led St. Mary's with 28 points and Brandee Walton added 13. Hamilton, the state-runner-up last season, had four players score in double figures. Kyndall Adams and Shelby Hartman tallied 14 points apiece Ashlee Moore had 13 and Aliyah Dickson 10.