LOS ANGELES—When the final buzzer sounded in Wichita State’s 72-58 win over La Salle on Thursday in the NCAA Tournament west regional semifinal, the celebrations were kept to a minimum.

Not that winning the game isn’t a big deal—it puts WSU in its first Elite Eight since 1981—but the Shockers have become a team that expects to win and knows there is still much more to play for.

“It’s a grind,” WSU guard Malcolm Armstead said. “You know, we’ve just got to stay focused. Forty minutes away, just looking forward to it. It’s a dream come true.”

What the Shockers are 40 minutes away from is a trip to Atlanta and the Final Four, a place they haven’t been since the 1964-65 season.

Standing in their way is second-seeded Ohio State, a team that defeated Arizona 73-70 on Thursday to advance.

“We need one more win to seal this deal and go back home and get ready for the Final Four,” WSU guard Ron Baker said. “I’m really excited for Saturday. We’ll work tomorrow and Saturday morning to prepare for Ohio State. It’s going to be a grind, and we’ll take it day by day.”

WSU (29-8) had arguably its easiest tournament game against La Salle (24-10). The explorers had defeated Boise State, four-seed Kansas State, and Mississippi during their Sweet 16 run, but at times were helpless against the Shockers.

Led by 10 early points from Carl Hall, WSU jumped out to a commanding 17-3 lead nearly seven minutes into the game.

“Carl Hall set the tone with just outrunning their bigs, and then we got some good stops. We had a commanding lead early, and just were able to play with that cushion throughout,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “I think we were a little fresher, and I think we were beating them down the floor early.”

WSU led 38-22 at halftime despite a La Salle run that pulled the explorers within eight points with 3:39 to play in the half.

The Shockers started the second half hot, getting back-to-back 3-pointers from Armstead and Baker to give WSU its largest lead of the game at 44-22. But an 8-0 run by La Salle over the next two minutes forced Marshall to call a quick timeout to settle his team down.

“Every good team is going to make a run,” Armstead said. “It’s just a matter of being able to sustain the run, so we knew we had to stay focused. The game wasn’t going to be over until the clock said zero. It was jut a matter of us staying focused and finishing the game.”

La Salle would get no closer than 11 points in the second half, and the Shockers even pushed their lead back out to 20 with less than four minutes to play to preserve the win.

Armstead led all players with 18 points. Hall had 16 points and Baker finished with 13 points. Leading La Salle were Jerrell Wright and Tyrone Garland with 16 points each.

WSU out-rebounded the Explorers 47-29.

“They really overwhelmed us,” La Salle coach John Giannini said. “It took us a half to kind of adjust to the level they were playing at. I thought the second has was pretty evenly played, but they just had too big of a lead, and we just couldn’t get it down to single digits.”

The win gives WSU 29 wins on the season, matching a school record set two seasons ago in the Shockers’ NIT championship run.

Saturday’s regional final between WSU and Ohio State will take place at 6:05 p.m. CT in the Staples Center and will be televised nationally on CBS. WSU and Ohio State have met four times, with three wins for the Buckeyes. The last time they met was in 1963.

“You know, this team can go as far as they want to go when you’re playing well,” Marshall said. “We’ve put together a run of very good basketball, and that leads us here to the Elite Eight. Now we have an opportunity to play Ohio State for the right to go to Atlanta.”