No. 4 Brusly seemed to hold all the cards early in the nonselect Division II semifinals Wednesday night at the LHSAA Marsh Madness boys basketball state tournament. But No. 1 Iowa pulled out all the stops late in the game to win 55-51 and move on to the finals for the first time in program history.

“Like I told them at halftime, a lot of it was just effort, give a better effort,” Iowa head coach Rob Melanson said. “Brusly had a lot to do with it.

“Every time Dashawn caught the basketball, and we told them this, they just sat in the middle and they waited. It was just some little things. What a great atmosphere, and what a great finish.”

Iowa (29-4) will play No. 2 Wossman in the finals on Friday at 8 p.m.

Iowa trailed 49-44 with 2:49 after Brusly’s (28-2) Cody Loupe hit the game’s only three-pointer. Also, The Yellow Jackets were in foul trouble with three starters with four each. But Iowa kept up the pressure on both sides of the ball, attacking the basket and pressuring the Panthers into eight turnovers in the final quarter.

Senior guard Dashawn Ceaser was one of those Yellow Jackets with four fouls, but he stayed in the game and made several critical plays. He had three steals in the fourth quarter, blocked a 3-pointer with 13.7 seconds left that would have given the Panthers a one-point lead and scored 10 of his 16 points. All this despite being in foul trouble and not making a field goal until the second quarter.

Ceaser scored off an offensive board with 53 seconds left, Desamonte Gradney hit two free throws for the lead and Ceaser made a pair from the charity stripe with 7.6 seconds left. Iowa made 12 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter. Gradney finished with 17 points.

“The guys hit the free throws, they hustled,” Melanson said. “We brought the press on them and came at them in the last quarter.

“Makaylin Jackson off the bench. Josiah Bushnell came off the bench. They did a great job bringing some pressure for us and created some steals. We found a way to win. That is the bottom line.”

Iowa struggled in the first quarter, making 4 of 15 shots. They didn’t get their first lead until Victor Fisher scored on a pair of putbacks that put Iowa up 23-20 with 3:24 left in the second quarter.

Brusly led 26-23 at halftime.

Eldrick Snearl led Brusly with a game-high 24 points.