Dover’s Elijah Allen shoots against Christiana’s Jah-Keish Demby in the first quarter. Delaware State News/Marc Clery[/caption]

DOVER — Admittedly, the first couple of minutes were a little shaky for the Dover High boys’ basketball team.

The Senators trailed by five in their first game of the DIAA state tournament. A quick timeout was called.

Then Jyheim Spencer scored on a tip-slam followed by a three-pointer from Elijah Allen in a span of six seconds. The Senators were off and running.

Allen scored 30 points as Dover won the second-round game over Christiana High 79-50 on Thursday night. Dover, the No. 2 seed who had a first-round bye, remained unbeaten and improved to 22-0 overall.

The Senators are in the quarterfinals of the state tournament for the first time since 2010 when they reached the state championship game. Dover plays 10th seed St. Mark’s on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Polytech.

The 7-2 deficit Dover faced at the beginning of the game is a distant memory.

Dover’s John Lassiter shoots against Christiana’s Luis Brujan in the second quarter.[/caption]

“That was an excellent timeout and got us to regroup to get back together,” Allen said. “I think we were a little nervous.”

“I thought we needed to calm them down,” said Dover coach Stephen Wilson. “There wasn’t anything going on. It’s basketball. Basketball is a game of runs and them (Christiana) is in the tournament for a reason. We just had to get ourselves back together.”

Dover rebounded to take an 18-11 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Senators never trailed again.

The starter’s were pulled to a standing ovationa with 4:22 left in the contest and the Senators holding on to a 71-42 advantage.

“It was an amazing feeling to have our home crowd behind us with our sixth man here,” Allen said. “You got to give it up for the coaches, the coaching staff and the players for getting it done.”

The Senators’ Eden Davis shoots against Christiana in the first quarter.[/caption]

“It’s very special for our community,” Wilson said. “We’ve had some loyal fans who have been with us since the beginning and we’ve picked up some people along the way. Right now we’re just playing for God, our school and our community.”

Eden Davis chipped in 19 points for Dover while John Lassiter scored 11 points in the first half alone.

Dover had lost its last five second-round contests, including a 34-30 setback last year to Salesianum.

“We get an opportunity to keep fighting and to play another day with this group,” Wilson said. “They didn’t want the season to end. It was a good team effort from us.”

Salesianum 76, Sussex Tech 47: The Sals opened the game on a 12-0 run to help eliminate Sussex Tech from the state tournament in the second round.

Salesianum, the eighth seed will play top-seeded Sanford at St. Georges at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Sussex Tech, the ninth seed, ends its season at 15-7 overall.

Sklyar Johnson was the only Sussex Tech player in double figures with 11 points.