ALEDO — The combination of Ponder basketball and the month of March has been a winning one during the Lions’ last two state championship runs.

March 2010 started with much of the same as Ponder held off Peaster 56-39 on Monday night in the Class 2A Region II quarterfinals.

“It is always a great thing to be playing in March,” said first-year Ponder head coach Jude Stanley. “Special teams play in March and this is a special team.”

Dating back to 2008, when the Lions won their first of back-to-back titles, Ponder is 8-0 in the month of March.

“Ponder fans love March,” Stanley said.

The win moves Ponder (33-4) into the regional semifinals against Edgewood at 8 p.m. Friday at Wisdom Gym in Stephenville.

Two wins in the regional tournament this weekend and Ponder will be back in Austin to defend its state title.

“Hopefully we can get back there, but there are a lot of good teams left to play,” Stanley said. “Tonight we played great and it was a total team effort out there. We have to continue to play like this.”

The Lions have now won 18 consecutive games by an average of more than 25 points per victory.

They made it look easy on Monday after a slow start put them behind, 8-7. Sparked by a Scott Gregg layup, the Lions roared with a 14-0 run to take a 21-10 lead with about three minutes left in the first half.

During the surge, Ponder had no trouble getting the ball inside by driving past a head-swiveling Peaster defense.

Guard Kaleb Broadstreet led the charge. He scored 13 of his 17 points in the first half.

“Defensively we were huge during the run, and it set up our offense,” Stanley said. “The second quarter was a shutdown quarter for us. This is the playoffs and you have to defend well to win.”

Peaster (29-6) came into the game fresh off an upset win against Clarksville, the No. 3-ranked team in the Texas Assoc-iation of Basketball Coaches 2A state poll. The Greyhounds rarely showed signs of clipping the No. 2 Lions, though.

Their offense was silent, especially in the second quarter, when they scored just two points.

At one time in the first half, they went about 10 minutes without a field goal and seven minutes without a point. At halftime, they were shooting 15 percent from the field and they only scored on five of their 24 possessions to put them in a 25-10 hole.

Gregg was a big part of Ponder’s lockdown defense. He finished with six blocks and cleaned up the glass with 13 rebounds while scoring 12 points.

“Scott is an awesome kid,” Stanley said. “He is starting to do things defensively he never thought he was capable of doing. We surround our defense around him.”

Peaster came alive a little bit in the third quarter when it kept pace with Ponder, and two minutes into the half it was trailing by nine points after hitting four straight shots.

But Ponder’s Alex Huerta drained a 3-pointer and David Robertson gave Ponder the momentum back with a three-point play en route to a 39-27 for the Lions heading into the final frame.

The Greyhounds made one final push in the fourth quarter by cutting the lead to seven after Tyler Petermeir hit a layup and then converted a three-point play.

But Broadstreet hit a 3-pointer in the corner to get the lead back up to double digits to ignite a 15-5 run to close the game and put a stamp on the win.

“What a huge play that was,” Stanley said of Broadstreet’s shot. “He is a player that can step up at any moment. That shot made us breathe a little bit better.”

Robertson joined Gregg and Broadstreet in double figures with 13 points while Peaster was led by Clayton Brown’s 19 points and Petermeier’s 13 points.

MATTHEW MUENCH can be reached at 940-566-6869. His e-mail address is mmuench@dentonrc.com .

Ponder 56, Peaster 39

Peaster (29-6) – Clayton Brown 19, Tyler Petermeier 13, Sean Wyatt 2, Jason Vaszuaskas 3, Beau Lindsay 2.

Ponder (33-4) – Kaleb Broadstreet 17, David Robertson 13, Scott Gregg 12, Alex Huerta 9, Jorden Young 4.