The WACO Warriors used a second-half comeback to knock off Danville 49-43 last night in the first round of the Class 1A Substate 4 boys’ basketball playoffs. Danville started the game on a 14-5 run and would stay in front by seven points at the end of the first quarter.

WACO still trailed 22-16 at halftime, but the Warriors woke up in the third period, starting the second half on an 8-0 run to take their first lead. WACO went into the final quarter up 33-31 and would build out their advantage to 44-35, but Danville would make one last push.

The Bears went on an 8-0 run going into the last minute of the game, and the Warriors would need a three-point basket from senior Isaac Rich to seal the victory.

Junior Christian Stacy led WACO by scoring 13 of his game-high 17 points in the second half, while sophomore Holden Hughes added 13 points. After the game, Warriors head coach Chayse Roth told KCII Sports his team responded well to a slow start.

“Danville came out and played a different type of defense that we hadn’t really seen,” Roth said, “and it took us a long time to really figure it out. We talked about it at halftime, and we came out and got a couple buckets early and really picked up our defense. We knew this is win-or-go-home [time].”

A sixth win in the last seven games helps WACO improve to 18-5. The Warriors now advance to the 1A District 8 semifinals Thursday night against Holy Trinity Catholic.

You can catch WACO in action when the high school basketball playoffs on KCII continue Thursday evening starting with pregame at 6:30 exclusively streaming on KCIIradio.com.