With 5:08 to play in the third quarter Thursday night, Sunnyside Christian trailed Almira/Coulee-Hartline by 18 points.

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The Knights were back on their heels, down on the scoreboard and destined, it seemed, for consolation play in the Class 1B state tournament.

Then Trevor Wagenaar hit a 3-pointer. And Kevin De Jong made two free throws.

And there wasn't anything wrong with SC, it turned out, that a remarkable second-half rally couldn't fix.

Capping the comeback was Steven Broersma, the Knights' 6-foot-6 junior, who scored on a layup just before the buzzer to push Sunnyside Christian into the semifinals with a 55-53 victory in the SunDome.

The third-ranked Knights, 21-3 and riding a 16-game winning streak, will meet Wellpinit (22-3) Friday at 6.

"At halftime," Broersma said as his jubilant teammates and fans rejoiced, "we just said we have to finally show up. We have to play hard and play like champions to have a chance."

At that, it took SC awhile to reverse what had started as an encouraging performance only to turn into a 13-minute nightmare.

Ahead 13-8 after the first quarter, the Knights were outscored 25-4 in the second and then yielded eight of the first 10 points of the third.

That's 35-6, in ACH's favor, over a quarter-plus.

But Wagenaar, who hit 4 of 9 3-pointers and finished with 12 points in support of Broersma's 15 and De Jong's 14, ignited a 15-0 Sunnyside Christian run with his aforementioned 3-ball.

By the time point guard Steven Bosma hit two free throws with 1:20 left in the quarter, SC was within 38-35, only to have ACH score the final seven of the period.

Pounding the ball relentlessly inside to Broersma and the sturdy 6-6 De Jong (who had game-high 14 rebounds), the Knights finally pulled even at 50-50 on De Jong's point-blank bucket with 3:06 to play.

Broersma made it 52-50 with a turnaround jumper from the lane at 1:36, after which the Warriors' Cody Jess made a free throw at 1:25.

Derek Isaak, the game's top scorer with 23 points, missed two foul shots at 0:41.5, and Broersma made one with 16.6 to play for a 53-51 lead.

ACH's Thunder Wellhausen, however, was fouled while setting a screen for Isaak, and with 7.8 seconds left made two free throws to tie it.

Time, Sunnyside Christian.

"I wasn't sure which option he (point guard Bosma) would see," coach Dean Wagenaar said. "We had three. The first was to kick it to Trevor in the corner, and he could catch and shoot or go to the basket. The second goes to De Jong at the high post, and he could shoot it or try to find Broersma. We didn't think Steven would be open, because they usually protect the basket in that situation."

But Bosma, who took an inbounds pass from Ryker Van Belle near midcourt, quickly found De Jong, who in turn located Broersma, and latter's reverse layup precipitated a frenzied celebration.

"We ran it (the play) to perfection," Broersma said, "just like we do every day in practice."

Said Wagenaar, "It's amazing what can happen when you become aggressive. And we lost a crazy game like this last year (51-49 to Cusick). So it was nice to get this one."

Sunnyside Christian, which won Class B titles in 1992, 2002 and 2005, won the first two 1B crowns in 2007 and 2008 before finishing seventh last year.