HARRISBURG — Lenny Smith would love to have that third quarter back.

Because if not for that eight-minute period, the Danville coach might have seen his team pull off an upset that would have had high school basketball fans from around the state talking. Instead, the Ironmen will have to be content with giving the defending state champion a challenge.

Danville had a one-point halftime lead over Archbishop Carroll in Tuesday’s PIAA Class AAA second-round playoff game. But the Patriots scored the first seven points of the third quarter and never looked back in a 64-51 victory at Central Dauphin East High School.

“We needed the first three minutes of the second half to stay in the game,” Smith said. “And that’s when they really pulled away from us.”

The District 4 champion Ironmen, making their third appearance in the state’s Sweet 16 in the last five years, finish the season at 19-7. Danville was trying to become the first D-4 AAA team to advance beyond the second round of states since Shamokin and Warrior Run in 1999.

“We accomplished something, but we thought we could accomplish more,” said Ironmen senior guard Ryan Reichard, who scored 11 points in his final high school game. “In the second half, you saw the defending state champion come out of them, and they just took control of the game.”

Archbishop Carroll (24-4), the third-place team out of District 12, will now meet Philadelphia Catholic League rival Neumann-Goretti in the quarterfinals Friday. Neumann-Goretti has defeated the Patriots three times this year.

Danville was led by junior forward Mikeal Owens-Wright, who scored a game-high 23 points and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. Playing in front of his father and uncle — dad Michael played football at Syracuse, and his Uncle Billy was an All-American basketball player for the Orangemen who later played 10 years in the NBA — Owens-Wright was aggressive in going to the hoop. He also knocked down some mid-range jumpers and made five of his six foul shots.

“I felt like if I went in strong at them, it would let them know that we’re not going to back down,” Owens-Wright said. “And our team just went with it.”

Juan’ya Green scored 21 points to pace Archbishop Carroll, while Ben Mingledough had 20 and D.J. Irving added 13.

Irving, a Boston University recruit, broke his middle finger in the Catholic League playoffs and missed two playoff games before returning for states. He tallied five assists and three steals against the Ironmen, and even buried a 3-pointer in the first quarter — showing that his broken finger wasn’t affecting his jumper.

“He looked good,” Smith said of Irving. “He didn’t have any problems penetrating. When he drives, he knows what to do with the ball. He either dishes or he finishes.”

Up 31-30 at the break, the Ironmen suddenly went ice cold in the third. After shooting 67 percent from the floor in the first half (14 of 21), they made just one of eight shots in the third quarter and twice missed the front end of a one-and-one.

The Patriots, on the other hand, merely turned their play up a notch. Mingledough put Archbishop Carroll up for good when he made a jumper to start the third quarter. Irving then scored on a putback, Mingledough made one of two from the line, and Matt Donaldson scored on another putback as Archbishop Carroll took a 37-31 lead.

For the night, the Ironmen outrebounded the Patriots by two, 26-24. But Carroll used its 14 offensive rebounds to pile up second-chance points.

“That was key,” Smith said. “They really go hard after the ball on the boards.”

The Ironmen twice got the deficit down to four in the third quarter, the last time coming on a pair of foul shots by Reichard. But Green answered with a trey, and — after a foul shot by Danville’s Alex Vitunac — the Patriots ended the third on an 8-0 run to take a 50-36 lead into the fourth.

“At halftime I told them that we needed to refocus defensively,” Archbishop Carroll coach Paul Romanczuk said. “I thought we did a great job of that in the second half.”

The Ironmen got the deficit down to nine on two occasions in the fourth, but that’s the closest they would get. With the Patriots’ quickness and ability to see the floor — they had 14 assists on the night — they were able to spread the floor and pull Danville out of its 2-3 zone in the second half.

“Once they get the lead and spread you out,” Smith said, “we were in big-time trouble.”