GILBERT — Just a week before St. Patrick’s Day, the luck finally ran out on the Irish.

The Huntington St. Joe Irish.

That’s because the Gilbert High School boys’ basketball team knocked off St. Joe, 51-42, on Wednesday night in the Class A Region 4 co-final at Gilbert’s Roy Cline Gym and advanced to next week’s state tournament at the Charleston Civic Center.

The Lions, which beat Man last week in the Class AA Region 4 sectional championship game, improved to 12-9 on the season and moved on to play in the state tourney after a one-year hiatus.

Gilbert, playing before a partisan home crowd, never trailed St. Joe, which finished its season with a 13-9 record. The Irish had narrowly lost, 45-42, last week in their sectional title game to No. 1-ranked Charleston Catholic.

Charleston Catholic, which beat Man in last night’s other Class A Region 4 co-final, will most likely maintain the No. 1 seed for the state tourney and could match up against Gilbert, which is expected to get the No. 8 seed.

If it’s Gilbert against Charleston Catholic, the two would square off next Thursday, March 18 at 5:30 p.m. in a first-round game at the Charleston Civic Center.

Charleston Catholic topped Man, 64-54, last night to advance.

But none of the Gilbert players or faithful were talking about Charleston Catholic on Wednesday night.

They were enjoying the moment.

Gilbert’s 6-foot-5 junior center, Ryan Altizer, put an exclamation point on the win as he put down a slam dunk with six seconds left — his first rim-rocker of the season.

As the buzzer sounded, Gilbert fans stormed the court.

Lions’ first-year coach Walt Cline hugged his wife Teresa and daughter Alexis, a Gilbert High School cheerleader, near the bench.

“This is my first trip to Charleston,” said a smiling Cline after the game. “These guys here sat on the bench two years ago and watched a group of outstanding basketball players play in the state tournament. When had to get them back up last year to get to this point.”

Gilbert jumped on top of St. Joe early, leading 19-11 after one quarter and holding a lead by as many as 14 points.

The Irish didn’t go away, however.

St. Joe was able to cut the deficit to just two points with three minutes to go.

But then the Lions took over, outscoring the Irish 8-1 the rest of the way to punch a ticket to the state tournament.

“We got out quick, then held on and survived their runs,” Cline said. “Our free throw shooting was just about making me burst a blood vessel. It was unreal but Dalton Bailey sank two key free throws there at the end and kind of turned the momentum around for us.”

Bailey’s two fouls shots put the Lions on top 45-41 with 1:17 to go.

Later, with 33 ticks to go, Altizer attempted a dunk but missed. However, Kyle Smith got the rebound scored on the putback to make it 47-41.

Altizer nailed down two more free throws with 17.9 ticks to go and had the game-icing dunk in the final seconds. Altizer led Gilbert with 23 points for the game, while Smith had 13. Cody Houck had seven, Chris Carter six and Bailey two.

“Ryan and Kyle are tough to deal with under the basket,” Coach Cline said.

Cline said his team rose to the challenge.

“All the talk coming in was how bad that we were going to get beat,” he said. “The people in Charleston and Huntington don’t seem to give us any credit at all.”

St. Joe was led by Nathan Hedrick and Aaron Williams, who netted 18 points apiece. Joshua Pierson had six points and was the only other Irish player to score.

Leading by eight points after one quarter, the Lions went on a 6-0 run to go on top 25-11, forcing St. Joe to call timeout. It would prove to be the biggest lead of the night for the Lions. Altizer scored two buckets during the run and Houck also had a layup.

The Irish, however, countered with an 8-3 run to close to within 28-23 at the half.

Gilbert outscored St. Joe 9-7 in the third to lead 37-30 after three.

The Irish then pulled to within three points on three different occasions, the last one being 42-39 after a bucket by Hedrick. St. Joe later cut it to 43-41 with 2:52 remaining after Hedrick scored another hoop in the paint. It was all Gilbert after that, however, as the Lions secured their trip to Charleston.

“We had to get rid of one of them tonight,” Coach Cline said of St. Joe. “They were talking about how they might match up with Charleston Catholic in the state championship if they got in the right bracket. This gives us confidence going in. Maybe we’re not smart enough to be afraid of anybody.”

Cline said the Lions will most likely get the No. 8 seed, meaning Gilbert would line up with Charleston Catholic.

“We’ll probably be number eight and Catholic will probably be number one,” he said.

Some of Gilbert’s free throws ended up banking in off the glass in last night’s game. Cline said that didn’t go unnoticed.

“Some of our free throws banked in tonight. We have to give thanks to God to what happened,” he said.

Cline said it was gut-wrenching when the Irish closed the gap to just two late in the game.

“When it was a two-point game I didn’t have that many nails left. It’s a good thing that I don’t have a heart condition,” he joked.