Basha boys basketball coach Brad Pinter said his team looked tentative in Saturday’s third quarter. Against Cesar Chavez, that’s a death wish.

The Bears had nearly three times as many turnovers (8) as points (3) in the third quarter, and the Champions never took their foot off the pedal on the way to a 65-56 victory in the 5A-I state quarterfinals.

The third-seeded Champions move on to play No. 2 Mountain View on Tuesday in the state semifinals at Wells Fargo Arena.

“We haven’t played at any arenas yet,” said Cesar Chavez guard Brandon Brown, who finished with a game-high 24 points.

Basha led by two points after the first quarter and faced just a one-point deficit with 36.5 seconds left before halftime after Judd Welfringer hit a free throw.

But Cesar Chavez scored the final three points of the second quarter and the first 10 of the third quarter to take a 14-point lead. Basha pulled to within nine points with 3:17 to go but would never whittle it down any lower than that.

The Bears did not get their first points of the third quarter until a bucket by Torren Jones with 2:18 left, and a free throw by Welfringer was the only other scoring.

“They play aggressive and come at you, and you’ve got to keep attacking them,” Pinter said. “I felt like we stopped attacking there in that third quarter.”

Welfringer was 0-for-8 from the field and ended up with only six points.

“Sometimes he has to work so hard to handle the pressure — and he did a great job on the pressure — but I think it takes some of his offense away,” Pinter said. “He was a little worn out from handling the pressure.”

Cesar Chavez played Mountain View late in the regular season, blowing a 10-point third-quarter lead in an eventual 87-80 loss.

“They’re big and strong,” Brown said. “But I think we can take them. We’re going to come in focused and do what we we do best. We’re going to try to run them.”