MARIETTA — Lassiter earned a second-straight trip to the state tournament Wednesday, defeating fifth-seeded Woodstock 71-66 in the quarterfinal round of the Region 5AAAAA tournament at Marietta Garden.

Fourth-seeded Lassiter (12-13) now moves on to the semifinals to play top-seeded tournament host Marietta on Friday for a spot in the region championship.

“This is the first time we’ve qualified for the state tournament in back-to-back years,” Lassiter coach Jeremy Morris said. “We’ve got to keep it up in the semifinals.”

Lassiter outscored Woodstock (9-17) by an 18-7 margin in the second quarter to pull away and take control of the game, though the Wolverines rallied in the fourth quarter to close the gap at the end.

“We shot the ball well in the first half — we shot about 50 percent in the first half,” Morris said. “It was a good game for us.”

Niles Clark scored 14 points, while Alex Thompson added 12, Adam Dowell had 11 and Robert Dowling had 10 to lead the way for Lassiter.

Tyler Morgan scored 30 points to lead Woodstock.

Lassiter held a 15-12 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Trojans started to pull away at the beginning of the second quarter.

Dowling and Clark started the quarter with layups to increase Lassiter’s lead to 19-12 with 7:10 remaining in the first half. After Troy Kizer hit a 3-pointer to help Woodstock cut its deficit to 19-15 with 6:53 left, Clark made one of two free throws, Khrishna Kharti made a 3 and Clark sank two more free throws to give the Trojans a double-digit lead, 25-15, with 5:05 left.

Woodstock was able to cut Lassiter’s lead back to single digits when Trey Alexander scored on a putback with 2:34 left to make it 27-19, but Kharti stole the ball and scored on a layup. Dowling and Devontae Moore then each made layups to give the Trojans a 33-19 lead at halftime.

Lassiter led 39-29 with 4:50 remaining when the Trojans stretched their lead even further with an 11-2 run to make it 50-31 with 1:50 left.

The Trojans led 53-36 at the end of the third quarter, but Woodstock began its comeback in the final period with an 8-2 run — with Morgan hitting four straight free throws — to cut its deficit to 55-46 with 5:44 remaining in the game.

Juwan Dickey made a couple of free throws to increase Lassiter’s lead to 57-46 with 5:29 left, but Connor Bennett and Chris Mowery hit back-to-back 3s to help Woodstock close the gap to 57-52 with 4:27 left.

After a couple of free throw by Dowling increased Lassiter’s lead to 59-52 with 4:21 left, Woodstock cut its deficit to four with another 3 by Bennett to make it 59-55 with 4:05 left — the closest the Wolverines had been since the first half.

That’s as close as Woodstock would get as Lassiter went back up by as much as 11 before the Wolverines closed the gap at the end.

“I think, in the first half, we couldn’t make shots,” Woodstock coach Brady Richeson said. “We had good looks. I think we played a little timid, a little nervous — that type of thing. I think, in the fourth quarter, we finally realized, ‘It’s now or never.’ I think we responded in that fourth quarter, that we put up 30 points, so I’m proud of the way we didn’t give up. We fought back until the end.”