Eastland got off to a slow start and was unable to keep up with a high-octane and athletic Chicago Marshall team in Thursday’s Class 1A state semifinal matchup at State Farm Center in Champaign.

The Commandos shot 51% from the field and beat the Cougars 66-38 to advance to Saturday’s state championship against Goreville at 10 a.m. Eastland will play Lawrenceville for third place at 7 p.m. Thursday.

While Eastland (32-7) struggled to hit shots, Marshall (23-9) rarely seemed to miss in the second half after leading 24-8 at halftime. Eastland scored its season low and gave up its season high in the loss.

“It didn’t go the way we wanted to in any aspect today,” Eastland coach Tyler Zumdahl said. “We’ve got to try to find a way to flush it, and we [still] have an opportunity to win a game at state today.”

Eastland never led in the game as the Cougars struggled to find momentum. Marshall’s Quinton Gipson had 20 points, and Rayvon Myles scored 14. Even after the break, the Commandos came out and hit their first few shots.

Zumdahl said the message at halftime was just to try to settle in and take one possession at a time. Marshall just continued to get stronger as the game went on against a team that had been playing great defense.

“We’ve seen throughout the year that we’re a team that can kind of make some big runs and things happen in a hurry,” Zumdahl said.

The run just never came on Thursday afternoon.

Eastland shot just 13 of 45 (29%) from the field, as Wyatt Carroll and Braden Anderson each had 11 points. Zy Haverland had nine points, and Parker Krogman had seven, and no other Cougars scored.

“It was Marshall’s speed and quickness and tenacity on defense,” Zumdahl said. “We were never settled. We were sped up the whole time on the ball, off the ball. Just couldn’t settle into anything.

“And obviously, when you start turning it over, it kind of snowballs, and we took some average shots.”

The Commandos improved their shooting percentage each quarter and hit 19 of 28 shots (68%) in the second half.

Zumdahl said it was an uncharacteristic start as his team was just 2 of 17 from the field in the first half.

“It’s unfortunate on this type of stage to play this type of game,” he said. “You’ve got to give Marshall a lot of credit for that. It was tough to see guys just miss some shots that they normally do make.”

Zumdahl said it was tough to prepare for a team with so much quickness that it doesn’t often see. The Commandos’ quick passing also led to 18 assists.

“Once you’re out there against that type of speed and athleticism across the board,” Zumdahl said, “things change in a hurry.”

Eastland came into the game allowing just 40.1 points per game while scoring 52.5. Krogman was held nine points under his season average.

“Obviously, I had a guy in my shorts the whole game, Krogman said. ”Not that that hasn’t happened, but I don’t think I handled that as well as I should have."

Marshall had 20 points off the bench and out-rebounded Eastland 36-24.

“I felt like we rebounded the ball well. Quinton played an excellent game defensively as well. We held their best player to seven points,” Marshall coach Darrin Laye said. “I can’t say it enough about how these guys buy into the defensive end of the floor. We get these team steals that turn into uncontested layups.”

The Commandos, like the Cougars, have emphasized defense all year. It has led them to a shot at winning their fourth state title and first since 2008.

“One thing that we did not want to do coming into this tournament was allow anybody to be comfortable with getting into their offense,” Laye said.