Moments after the Glenvar girls basketball team dropped its Group A Division 2 state quarterfinal game to Lee 62-54 on Saturday afternoon, Highlanders coach Billy Wells valiantly tried to force a smile.

"Time to start baseball," he said with glistening eyes.

Wells has coached the girls basketball team the past three winters and following each season up with baseball has proven to be too much of a grind. Wells, a health and physical education teacher at Glenvar, recently announced that this basketball season would be his last.

"The administration knew at the beginning of the season and I told the girls about a month ago," Wells said.

It was clear his team wanted to prolong his retirement as long as possible, however. Like another week.

Glenvar's furious second-half rally closed what was a 19-point Lee advantage at 47-28 to four points at 53-49 before the Generals steadied themselves in the final minutes.

Lee (18-9) advances to Richmond for the state semifinals for the second consecutive year. The Generals will play Lancaster on Thursday at 9 a.m. at the Siegel Center.

"We don't care how we get there as long as we're going to Richmond," said Lee coach Stephanie Ward, who admitted her team wobbled down the stretch. "When you're playing at this level you know that everybody's got a run in them. Glenvar never gave up.

"We got a little rattled but the kids [ultimately] kept their composure. There was no need to panic."

Even without senior captain Erin Haines, who suffered an ACL injury in the Clinch Mountain District tournament championship game two weeks ago, the Generals took a commanding 15-2 lead as guard Jalan McPherson scored seven first-quarter points.

"They were scoring inside and out and we couldn't get our shots to fall," Wells said.

Although Glenvar closed to within 29-20 in the second quarter, Lee ran off the last seven points to lead 36-20 at the half.

Lee's lead mushroomed to 19 points with two minutes left in the third period before the Highlanders started their surge. Glenvar put on a full-court press and Lee, which had made its first 12 free throws, committed several turnovers, missed a lot of shots, and suddenly began to have trouble at the line.

With Kayla Dehart and Chelsea Arthur scoring 18 fourth-quarter points between them, Glenvar chipped away, forcing Lee to use several timeouts.

"I told our kids that works to our advantage. We can rest," Wells said. "They're calling timeout."

Glenvar (19-8) got the margin down to 53-49 after a Lyndsey Hunter driving layup at the 2:17 mark, but could get no closer.

"We had three starters with four fouls and let them run off more clock than we wanted," Wells said of Glenvar's halted momentum.

Lee ran out the clock, regaining its composure by making its final eight foul shots.

The Generals were 28-of-37 on free throws for the game but only 8-of-17 in the middle stretch.

Sophomore Makenzie Cluesman and McPherson led Lee with 20 and 19 points, respectively. Dehart and Arthur finished with 19 and 16, respectively, for Glenvar.

Lee dominated Glenvar in rebounding, 36-17, as Chelsey Parsons had 12 and Morgan Miles had eight.

Wells said that Glenvar assistant coach Nick Stewart "was the stand-up coach today and is ready to be a head coach," although Wells' successor has not yet been officially named.

LEE (18-9)

Cluesman 4 10-12 20, Brock 1 6-8 8, Miles 4 4-4 12, McPherson 5 7-11 19, Parsons 0 0-0 0, Skaggs 0 1-2 1, Mitchell 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 28-37 62.

GLENVAR (19-8)

Dehart 6 7-12 19, Storm 3 0-0 7, Hunter 4 4-5 12, Arthur 5 3-5 16, Trivette 0 0-0 0, Wiley 0 0-0 0, McKee 0 0-2 0, Moore 0 0-0 0, Looney 0 0-0 Field 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 14-24 54.

Lee 15 21 12 14 -- 62

Glenvar 5 15 12 22 -- 54

3-point goals -- Lee 4 (Cluesman 2, McPherson 2), Glenvar 4 (Arthur 3, Storm). Total fouls -- Lee 16, Glenvar 26. Fouled out -- Arthur.