Defense made the difference on Thursday as the West Central Area Knights forced 21 turnovers on the way to a 64-53 victory over Heritage Christian Academy in the Class A State quarterfinals at Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.

Nasir Dotts led the Knights with 4 steals and dished out 5 assists, and Cam Anderson was superb with 23 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals. WCA shot 37.5% (24-64) on the night and made 35.7% (10-28) of their 3-point attempts.  Ben Bye pulled down a team high 11 rebounds.  Mitchell Dewey and Bryce Kjesbo joined Anderson in double figures with 10 and 16 points, respectively. The Eagles made 40.7% (22-54) of their shots and 33.3% (7-21) of their 3’s.  They also won the rebounding battle, 40-37.  Owen Haag and Griffin Booms led them with 11 points each and Abu Tarawallie had a team high 11 rebounds to go along with 8 points.  Aaron Palmer finished with 10 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.  Josh Sokeye contributed 8 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a blocked shot. West Central Area (28-3) will now face Fertile-Beltrami at 2:00pm Friday at Williams Arena in a Class A semifinal match.