By Noah Friedman

Teams don’t often play each other again the following week on a bigger stage.

They often don’t meet in a playoff rematch, either.

Bu this was the case when No. 10 seed St. Mary’s (16-11) beat No. 23 Chaparral (8-19) 61-25 Thursday night in the first round of the Division I boys basketball state tournament. Last year, Chaparral defeated St. Mary’s 75-59 in the D-I state tournament.

“(It is) the magnitude of the state tournament,” St. Mary’s coach Ty Amundsen said. “Our guys were ready to play today. They knew what they were up against when they came here.”

A Feb. 11 game pitted these two teams at Chaparral, where St. Mary’s won 59-54.

Thursday’s contest remained scoreless at the beginning of the game until Chaparral junior guard Trey Checkett knocked down a three pointer. But Chaparral scored only twice after that in the quarter and never led again.

A 16-1 run capped the first period for St. Mary’s, building a 16-8 lead.

“I felt like (Chaparral) had some good looks,” Amundsen said. “They weren’t making the shots they were making last week.”

Amundsen added that his team had a great first quarter defensively, causing five turnovers with the help of its full-court trap.

Junior forward Deshawn Wilson returned from injury for St. Mary’s, putting up a game-high 16 points.

“I had a good feel for the game, even early on,” Wilson said.

Chaparral had no answer in the paint for St. Mary’s 6-foot-10 sophomore center Kj Hymes, who along with Wilson combined for 20 of their team’s 28 points with 3:41 left in the first half.

Hymes (14 points) said the continuity of the team contributed to St. Mary’s holding Chaparral to 25 points in the game.

“Everybody played together (and) we communicated well,” Hymes said. “It was one of our problems throughout the year. We’re finally starting to pick it up.”

The game only grew worse for Chaparral as junior shooting guard Jalen Foster was whistled for a technical in the final two minutes of the second quarter, stalling any momentum his team had.

St. Mary’s opened up a 20-point lead at halftime, 34-14, led by the familiar scoring of Wilson and Hymes.

St. Mary’s led 51-19 after the third quarter. At that point, Hymes and Wilson were outscoring Chaparral by themselves, 28-19.

The fourth quarter provided a running clock for the remainder of the game. Both coaches emptied the benches with 5:34 to go in regulation, which Wilson said he enjoyed.

“I’m glad that we got up by a lot so that everyone could play,” Wilson said.

In a losing effort, Chaparral was led by senior guard Scott Mcgill and junior forward Kai Fletcher, who each contributed five points.

The Knights head to Glendale to take on Mountain Ridge Saturday night in hopes of advancing back to the state quarterfinals.

“We’ll have our hands full on Saturday,” Amundsen said.

Noah Friedman is a sports journalism student at Arizona State Universirty.