By Andy Walter

NEWARK — Vince Evans remembers looking up at the scoreboard late in Thursday’s game and being surprised by the numbers he saw.

“I think there were about three minutes left and we had 32 points,” said the Seaford High coach. “And we had been scoring 70, 75 points a game the last couple games.”

But that’s the kind of tough night it was for the Blue Jays.

Third-seeded Tower Hill took control almost from the start before posting a 58-42 victory over the No. 10 Seaford in the DIAA boys’ basketball semifinals at the Carpenter Center on Thursday night.

Evans is the first to admit that Seaford (19-5) didn’t play its best in making the program’s first state Final Four appearance in 25 years.

Evans, though, would also be the first to admit that the Hillers had a lot to do with it.

After reaching the semifinals last winter, Tower Hill (19-3) will play in the state championship game for the first time on Saturday.

The Hillers will take on top-seeded Salesianum at 6 p.m. in the Carpenter Center in an all-Wilmington title game. The Sals downed Howard, 58-50, in Thursday’s second semifinal game.

Seaford also lost to Tower Hill in last year’s state tournament but beat the Hillers by 14 in the second game of the regular season.

“I felt like they played more as a team than we did tonight,” said Evans. “It starts with preparation. We had three days to get prepared for this game. You can tell, for those guys, tonight meant everything to them.

“That’s a good team. They played hard. I remember telling somebody before the game started, they’re a good solid team that sticks together. You could tell tonight, they didn’t care who it (the scoring) came from, just as long as they got it done. I think that was the difference in the game.”

Seaford led only once, going up 2-0 when Careen Bolden scored 32 seconds into the contest. The Blue Jays were still down just 10-7 when Brent Ricketts sank a three-pointer with 3:36 left in the first quarter.

Tower Hill, though, built its advantage to 18-8 after a quarter and to 32-14 with 1:02 left before halftime.

After trailing 32-18 at intermission, Seaford played the Hillers almost even in the second half. Tower Hill out-scored the Blue Jays only 26-24 over the final two quarters.

The damage was already done, however. Seaford never got Tower Hill’s lead under 13 points in the second half.

The Blue Jays’ 42-point total matched its lowest output of the season. They had scored at least 70 points in eight of their last 10 contests.

Seaford, which had only six assists on its 15 baskets, shot just 35.7 percent (15-of-42) with 15 turnovers. Bolden (15 points) and Ricketts (10) were the only Blue Jays to reach double figures.

“Tonight was not the kind of team we had been,” said Evans. “Guys were trying to play some ‘hero ball’ but we just didn’t share the ball the way we’re capable of. ... We kind of got away from us being us.”

Tower Hill shot 50 percent (19-of-38), committed only 12 turnovers and got double-digit scoring from four of the six players it used in the contest. Dylan Sheppard had 16 while Davis Bland added 14 after sinking 4-of-7 three-pointers.

Senior Tyrese Fortune, who missed the last two games with a knee injury, did return for Seaford. But he played just over five minutes and scored only two points.

Fortune, Wesnel Romain and Booker DeShields are the only seniors on the Blue Jays’ roster, so Seaford has the potential to make another state tournament run next winter. Evans knows the Blue Jays will have to be better if they want to go farther.

“We have a lot of good guys coming back,” said Evans. “Our JV team only lost one game and we have a really, really good middle school group. We have some good young players down there. So we’re going to be competitive again.

“We’ll let this one hurt for a couple days and, I told the guys, we’ll get back in the gym in a couple weeks.”

Free throws

Bolden also had a team-high five assists for the Blue Jays. ... Seaford’s other 42-point game came in a 46-42 loss to Smyrna on Jan. 15. ... The Henlopen Conference had a streak of four straight title-game appearances snapped.

Follow Andy Walter on Twitter at @DSNSports.