In Monday night’s quarterfinals of the 107th annual Little Ten Conference Boys Basketball Tournament in Somonauk, top-seeded Newark built a double-digit lead in the opening half, held off an early fourth-quarter run by No. 8 seed Leland and closed out the contest for the 51-35 victory.

In the second game of the evening, No. 5-seeded Illinois Math & Science Academy used 15-5 runs in both the second and third quarters to advance past No. 4-seeded Serena 60-38.

Newark plays IMSA at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday in the semifinals, while Leland and Serena will tangle at the same time in the consolation side of the bracket in the middle school gym.

Newark 51, Leland 35

The Norsemen (14-10) led 17-8 after the opening quarter, 28-12 at halftime and 36-23 heading to the final eight minutes.

The Panthers (11-13) opened the fourth quarter on a 7-2 burst to cut the disadvantage to eight points, but a 3-pointer by Newark’s Reggie Chapman and drive by Kellen Westerfield pushed the momentum back to the Norsemen until the final buzzer.

Chapman led Newark with a game-high 20 points, four rebounds, seven assists and a pair of steals. Cody Kulbartz added 13 points, eight rebounds and four blocks, Westerfield eight points and five rebounds, Tuckyr Vana five points and Austin Reibel four points, six rebounds and five assists.

Newark finished 21 of 47 (45%) shooting and held a slight edge in the rebounding (35-31) and turnover (15-18) departments.

“I feel like the last few games we’ve played pretty solid defense, and I feel like tonight was pretty good as well,” Newark coach Kyle Anderson said. “We had a few longer possessions where we broke down late and gave up a basket, but also credit Leland for sustaining an active offense. It wasn’t always pretty tonight, but in a tournament setting you just want to move on, and were doing that.

“We struggled a little bit offensively tonight. ... Leland’s zone gave us trouble. We are still not doing a great job with skip passes or attacking the gaps against zones, but we did a good enough job with that to get the lead early and then kind of keep things a three-possession game in the second half.”

Leland - which shot 15 of 47 (32%) - was led by Declan Brennan’s 14 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Hayden Spoonmore added nine points, four rebounds and a trio of steals, and Jackson Torman chipped in eight points, including a pair of triples.

“Disappointed in the outcome, but I’m happy with the way we played defense tonight,” Leland coach Pat Torman said. “Newark is a very good offensive team, and we’ve struggled defensively this season, so to hold them to 51 points is a big step in the right direction for us.

“We also came into tonight shooting the ball pretty well the last few games, but tonight we just didn’t shoot well. We turned the ball over a few too many times as well, and they did a good job of taking advantage of a lot of those mistakes. We had a few good stretches where we kept them from scoring, but unfortunately those were the same times we were struggling to put the ball in the hoop as well.”

IMSA 60, Serena 38

The Titans led just 13-11 seconds into the second quarter over the Huskers but then exploded on a 15-5 run over the next five minutes and held a 31-20 lead at the intermission.

IMSA continued its strong play with another 15-5 burst to open the second half and held a 50-30 margin entering the final period.

IMSA (12-6) - which made 64% of their shots through three quarters and finished at 54% for the game, was led by 15 points and seven rebounds from Omar Njikam. Neil Sitapara had 14 points, including four 3s, and Benjamin Dixson 11 points.

Serena (10-13) was led by 12 points and four rebounds from Payton Twait, as well as seven points each from Wyatt Stone and Carter Meyer.

The Huskers shot 14 of 44 (32%), including just 4 of 22 from beyond the arc.

“When we played them the first time (a Serena 10-point win Dec. 11), they didn’t shoot the ball well, and we made shots,” Serena coach Dain Twait said. “Credit IMSA tonight, they played hard, they were prepared and they ran good offense. They are a very athletic team with length, and we just struggled to stay with them defensively.

“Offensively we weren’t able to get much going in the paint, and when that happens and you’re not knocking down perimeter shots, it’s tough to score. I guess the bottom line is we really didn’t get in any kind of rhythm on either end of the floor tonight, while IMSA seemed in rhythm right from the start and didn’t miss a beat.”