Defending Division II champion St. Louis punched its return ticket to the state basketball tournament with an 83-46 quarterfinal round win over De La Salle Friday night.

The top-seeded Saints (30-3) advanced to face the winner of today’s No. 4 Ben Franklin-No. 5 Ursuline Academy game in the semifinal round at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Alario Center in New Orleans.

St. Louis scored the game’s first 18 points. De La Salle (20-12) turned the ball over on each of its first seven possessions and didn’t score in the first 5 minutes. St. Louis turned the extra possessions into easy baskets with a series of nifty passes, highlighted by a no-look assist from Paris Guillory to Tia Reder.

Myca Trail scored 13 points in the opening quarter, which ended with St. Louis leading 26-5.

Trail finished with 26 points while Reder added 23. Every Saints starter scored at least six points and four finished in double figures, with Gabbie Link scoring 11 and Guillory adding 10.

Reder scored 11 in the third quarter as the Saints stretched their lead to 23 points.

“When Reder is scoring like that we are a different ball club,” St. Louis head coach Tony Johnson said. “She is outstanding kid who has started three years. I know she can shoot the ball. That’s what we want from her. She has got the confidence and we are pleased with how she’s doing.”

Johnson is confident about the Saints’ chances to repeat.

“I really believe so,” he said. “The kids are locked in to what we are doing and that’s why I think we’ll be successful on our second run.

“We played outstanding. We wanted to play fast, wanted to start fast, and we did that,” Johnson said. “We did what we had to in order to be successful tonight. I have to praise the kids tonight. I told them it was the quarterfinal round and time for them to start fast and to play like we practice, and they did that.”

Dania Lewis scored 24 points to lead De La Salle.