Photo by Kim North Monroe Central’s Chase Allen (5) skies for two of his 12 points Wednesday night as North Adams’ Connor Young (4) defends during their Ohio Division VI Region 23 semifinal inside Alumni Hall on the campus of Ohio Dominican University in suburban Columbus. The Seminoles advanced to the regional championship game on Saturday afternoon with a 66-52 victory.

COLUMBUS — Monroe Central entered unchartered waters Wednesday night, but it was smooth sailing from the Sweet 16 to the Elite 8.

The Seminoles (23-3) punched their ticket to the Ohio Division VI Region 23 boys basketball championship game on Saturday afternoon with a wire-to-wire, 66-52 , victory over North Adams before a large gathering inside Alumni Hall on the campus of Ohio Dominican University.

“It feels great. We’ve just got to work on getting better,” second-year Monroe Central head coach Mason Lang said. “We need to stay focused and try to keep moving forward.”

With the win, Monroe Central advances to the regional final against the winner of the Cardington Lincoln-Beaver Eastern on Saturday at 4 p.m., back at Alumni Hall.

“It feels really good. We’re one step closer to our goal,” Howell said. “We found something early on that worked and we stuck with it,” Tucker Howell recalled.

Monroe Central got off to another flying start behind the stellar inside play of Howell. The 6-1 senior netted 12 of his game-high 25 points in the opening eight minutes.

“It’s always nice when you can get a player like Tucker rolling early,” Lang said. “We wanted to get him rolling early, and we did, but our goal was to get the best shots by the best player.”

The Seminoles led 19-15 after one quarter, but extended the margin to 10, 32-22, at the half as junior guard Caedyn Silva scored seven points — including a pair of trifectas.

Monroe Central, which shot 65 percent from the floor in eliminating Malvern and a white-hot 78 percent in taking out Hiland, blistered the nets at 90 percent (9-10) in the first quarter, 70 percent in the first half and 67.4 (29-43) for the game.

On the other end, the Green Devils (20-6) couldn’t generate any type of a comeback as the Seminoles defense forced them into 9-for-21 from beyond the bonus arc and 20-for 38 for the game.

“I told the kids going to the fourth quarter that we needed to close them out,” Lang noted. “We knew nothing was going to be easy. We took charge early in the fourth quarter and got the game under control.”

Silva was a factor tonight with 15 points and a handful of assists and steals, while Tucker Howell garnered 13 rebounds, eight of those coming in the second half as North Adams was one-and-done for the most part.

“I always knew Caedyn would step up big-time at some point, and he did tonight,” Lang praised. “He’s a big-game player.”

Chase Allen chipped in 12 points and Cooper Howell snagged nine rebounds.

Monroe Central, unfortunately, turned the ball over 15 times to 13 for the Green Devils.