LIGONIER – NorthWood and Fairfield each earned a boys basketball sectional win Wednesday night to move on in the state tournament series.

The defending champion Panthers used a strong second half to turn back West Noble 64-44 and Fairfield rolled past Lakeland 50-27 in first-round action of the Class 3-A West Noble Sectional.

NorthWood (20-2) will meet Fairfield (16-9) in the second semifinal game Friday night. Wawasee (12-11) faces Tippecanoe Valley (14-8) in the first semifinal at 6 p.m. Friday.

NorthWood owns a pair of wins over Fairfield this season. The Panthers beat the Falcons 67-50 at Fairfield back on Dec. 13 and then edged them 57-56 on Jan. 2 in a semifinal game of the Winning Edge Holiday Tournament played at Tippecanoe Valley.

Tippecanoe Valley topped Wawasee 63-49 at Valley last Friday night in the regular-season finale. The Warriors were without standout Gage Reinhard in that game however due to an injury. Reinhard did play for Wawasee in their sectional win Tuesday night over Whitko at West Noble.

The sectional title game is scheduled for Saturday at 7:30 p.m. If Tippecanoe Valley wins Friday night, the sectional finale will be moved to Monday night due to the Valley girls basketball team playing in the Class 3-A state championship game Saturday night in Indianapolis.

NorthWood led just 31-24 at halftime over the hosts before outscoring the Chargers 21-11 in the third quarter to take control.

Vinny Miranda paced the Panthers with 19 points. Braxton Linville scored 16 points and Dakiryon Fox 15 for NorthWood.

Brandon Moser had 12 points to lead West Noble, which finishes at 6-16.

Fairfield outscored the Lakers 14-4 in the second quarter en route to their easy win.

Joe Line tossed in 25 points by hitting 10-14 shots to pace the Falcons. Brock Goeglein added 14 points for the winners.

Camron Bontrager had 12 points and Colin Harp 11 for Lakeland, which finishes at 2-21.