This was not what Park Center coach James Ware anticipated, but he’s not about to complain about a victory.

Park Center had perhaps its best defensive showing of the season, albeit unplanned, in a 54-39 victory over Eastview in the Class 4A semifinals.

The Pirates (30-1) are accustomed to getting up and down the court, forcing the issue with its collection of offensive stars. That was their plan Thursday, but as it turned out, defense ruled the day. They held Eastview to under 30-percent shooting from the floor (29.5%), kept the Lightning from scoring from outside, and forced 18 turnovers.

Eastview’s 39 points was a season-low for the Lightning.

“Our whole game plan, believe or not, was to try to play fast and make the game go up and down, see if we could speed them up,” Park Center coach James Ware said. “That is not what happened at all. For us, that’s huge to win a grind-it-out, slugfest, every-possession-counts game. We’re super-excited about the way we won tonight.”

The game turned in Park Center’s favorite in the latter stages of the first half when they went on an 11-2 run to take a 22-13 halftime lead.

“A nine-point lead in a game like this is huge,” Ware observed. “It felt like a 15-point lead.”

Park Center went on the attack after halftime. Guard Leo Torbor was the catalyst with six points, two assists and a blocked shot as the Pirates extended the lead to 35-19.

At the same time, Eastview (23-7) continued to struggle with Park Center’s defensive pressure. Coach Paul Goetz said his team did what it set out to do, but just couldn’t finish.

“We thought we could control them on the defensive end, but they just caused havoc for us on the other end,” Goetz said. “They sped us up a little bit and that was the difference in the game.”