The Lafayette boys’ basketball team will play for their first state championship since 1976 as the Fighting Irish were able to defeat Farmington Friday night, 46-41, in their Class 4 seminal inside Mizzou Arena.

Lafayette has now won 16 consecutive games and they improve to 25-4.  They’ll play Republic, the defending state champions, at 8:10 PM Saturday in the Class 4 final as the Tigers defeated Helias in three overtimes, 67-62.

The Fighting Irish jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead on Farmington Friday night as Xavier Kurth scored all ten and LHS led 17-8 after the first quarter.

Farmington battled back and pulled to within two points at halftime, 22-20, and they were down only four points, 34-30 at the end of the third quarter.

The Knights then took their first lead of the game, 38-37, with 4:05 to play in the fourth quarter and also led 40-39 before the Irish took the lead for good.

Curtis Hubbard converted a three-point play and Lafayette ended the game on a 7-1 run to advance to the state championshp game.

Kurth ended with 20 points and 10 rebounds, while Gary Wilkinson added 12 points.

The state championship game will air live on 680 KFEQ and here on StJosephPost.com