De La Salle spent the early part of this girls basketball season learning the difference between playground ball and high school.

“You can’t just come down the court and pull up a shot from the timeline,” De La Salle coach Mike Mosley said about his team that has seven freshmen and eighth graders. “You don’t play basketball like that.”

What those youngsters had to learn was how to play as a team. In the process, they learned how to win.

No. 5 De La Salle (16-9) will play in the girls basketball state tournament for the first time in school history when it faces top-seeded Lafayette Christian (27-5) in an LHSAA Division III select semifinal set for 1 p.m. Tuesday at the University Center in Hammond.

“They see now this is big-girl ball,” said senior Kirsten Robinson, now in her fifth season playing basketball at the school but out for the playoffs because of a knee injury. “They’re coming off park ball and stuff, and throughout the season, they realized they have to grow up.”

The younger players “thought it was more like, ‘We need to score,’ ” said second-year starting point guard Tamia Cole, a sophomore. “But we had to teach them that it was more like passing and getting the ball around and finding good shots.”

That showed in the last two wins. First was the 49-39 victory against No. 12 St. Thomas Aquinas in the second round of the playoffs. Then came the 54-36 road win at No. 4 Dunham in the quarterfinals. De La Salle, an all-boys school until it admitted girls for the first time in 1992, allowed only eight points in the second half against Dunham.

The leading scorers against Dunham were junior Jaeden Brown and eighth grader Ya’Myri Brown (no relation), each with 15 points.

Ya’Myri Brown, who scored 18 points in the first playoff game, leads the team in points with 17 per game. She is among the quickest players on the court. She will join the track and field team and run sprints after basketball season ends.

Tamia Cole, the point guard, averages 11 points per game and is on the team with twin sister Teyana Cole, another starter.

Freshman Saiya Chester is a dogged defender. Her ball-denial skills were honed by playing on the boys basketball team when she was in middle school, she said.

“That’s kind of what has gotten us through the playoffs,” Mosley said. “She gets on their best player, and she takes it personal: ‘You’re not going to get the ball and I’m going to make sure you don’t get it.’”

Amor Sutton, another eighth grader, is another good shooter and strong defender.

“It’s been a joy watching them grow up right before my eyes,” said Mosley, who coached St. Katherine Drexel to a state championship in 2018.

One turning point for the team came Feb. 6 in an overtime loss to Booker T. Washington.

“It was the best game we had played all year, as far as fight and grit, where we had the entire team working to do one thing,” Mosley said. “It seems like after that, it just started to click.”

De La Salle played a challenging schedule that included seven losses against Class 5A schools, including Division I semifinalist Edna Karr. Another loss came in district against No. 2 seed Sacred Heart, which will face No. 3 Rosepine in the other Division III semifinal.

Lafayette Christian will provide the next major hurdle. The Knights, on a 22-game winning streak, have won state titles in seven of the past eight seasons, including the last four.