Cooper Francis was on Centralia’s mind on Thursday.

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The reigning all-state senior matched up with the Panthers in the Centralia Invitational semifinals along with the reigning state and tournament champion Salisbury. Francis finished with 12 points, but his teammates gathered together to defeat Centralia 55-40, outscoring the Panthers 18-1 in the third quarter following a 8-0 Centralia run to tie the game at 23 before halftime.

Head coach Scott Humphrey said Salisbury’s 6-foot-3 “difference-maker” forces Centralia (4-2) to adjust on offense and defense because of his speed and athleticism. When the Panthers punctuated the first half with an 8-0 run, Francis wasn’t on the floor due to attracting three fouls so they took advantage.

“We can play a little faster, and we can get going,” Humphrey said. “It’s hard to replicate his athleticism, length and size. You feel like you can press them and go after them a little bit.”

Francis made his presence felt when he returned in the second half, scoring 10 of his points and completing three 3-point plays usually on a ball he pushed down the floor in transition. A few Centralia players weren’t overlooked after the way they closed the first half.

Dryst Bostick muscled in his own 3-point play, Travis Brooks drained a 3-pointer and then Noah Kropf leaped to catch a miss behind his head to put it back before the buzzer. Kropf finished with eight points and six rebounds to follow the scoring of Logan Rosenfelder and his three 3-pointers. Anthony Ford also had eight points, and Elliott McCoy picked up three steals in Centralia’s late first-half run.

“Noah Kropf did a good job attacking, Logan got some shots to fall, Dryst Bostick came in and gave us really good energy in the second quarter,” Humphrey said.

Salisbury (4-0) countered with its own outpouring of points off turnovers early in the second half for a 10-0 run in three minutes before taking a 41-24 advantage into the fourth quarter. Humphrey said Francis right in the middle of Salisbury’s zone and hence a big reason why it threw Centralia off.

“Our big thing is we got to keep (Francis) out of transition,” Humphrey said. “We played on our heels a little bit and some of that has to do with him and some of that might have been we didn’t attack the right way. It’s hard because he’s so long and athletic that he can get out and get easy buckets. If you do get by him, you have to score over two really high school basketball players at 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-5.”

Mason Stapleton and Hayden Woolridge are the players inside to deal with for anyone brave enough to drive it into the lane. Stapleton was a problem in the post and on rebounds as he led Salisbury with 15 points.

Centralia did have some open looks from the perimeter in that third quarter but had several shots rim out, leaving the Panthers dissatisfied with the results but satisfied with their effort.

“I was really happy with how the kids played,” Humphrey said. “We just had a really rough stretch in the third quarter that put us in a hole. Too beat them, we have shoot the ball extremely well, and unfortunately, we didn’t do that all the time.”

Centralia looks forward to its chance to bounce back against Moberly (2-2) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the third-place game.

On Tuesday, Centralia had three score in double figures to defeat Van-Far 64-52. Travis Brooks led with 16 points, Noah Kroph had 15 points, and Anthony Ford finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.