St. John’s senior Curtis Geise leaves one Tiger in the dust and forces Jackson Center senior Eric Ryder to foul Tuesday night in Division IV Regional semifinal action at Kettering Fairmont. Geise erupted for a career-high 37 in the Blue Jays’ 9-point triumph.

“It feels great to be a step away. It’s not a 1-person team; everybody is contributing,” Geise said. “Others are setting screens for me to get me open and finding me with good passes. It’s fun how we’re doing this.”

St. John’s coach Aaron Elwer concurred.

“Coaches always talk about great team chemistry but this team has achieved it. No one cares who gets the credit; it’s all about winning,” he explained. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a team quite like this; it’s fun to see how they prepare — they’ve worked so hard starting last spring, through the summer, the fall and now — and take the game plans we give them and execute them well. It’s a lot of fun.” The Blue Jays (20-5) advance to take on Troy Christian (25-2; finished ranked 9th in the final AP poll), who knocked off top-ranked and previously-unbeaten New Madison Tri-Village (26-1) 48-43 in overtime in the second game Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. Friday with a trip to state on the line. Perhaps the Tigers (22-5) showed their experience at being at the regional level last winter in the early going, with senior Alex Meyer scoring 10 of his team-high 28 (3 bombs) in the first period. His two free throws with 1.5 seconds to go gave the Tigers a 14-11 edge.