DANA POINT >> After a pair of postseason blowout victories, the Dana Hills boys basketball team was overflowing with confidence.

The Dolphins faced serious adversity Friday when they lost a double-digit lead and trailed by five to start the fourth quarter, but they were resilient enough to make plays down the stretch to defeat Bishop Amat 55-52 in a CIF-SS Division 3A quarterfinal game at Dana Hills High.

Lancers guard Manuel Chavez had a great look at a 3-pointer from the corner that would have given his team the lead, but the shot rattled in and out and was secured by Dana Hills, and that forced Bishop Amat to foul quickly. Griffin Haugh (14 points) knocked down a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left to put Dana Hills up by 3 points.

Ben Shaw’s off-balance 3-pointer that would’ve sent the game to overtime missed the mark for Bishop Amat, and Dolphins players and fans celebrated on the court.

No. 3 seed Dana Hills (18-9) will be at Millikan of Long Beach on Tuesday for its first semifinals appearance since 2013.

Dolphins coach Tom Desiano was able to breathe a sigh of relief after the victory.

“I’ll tell you what, that 3, from their shooter (Chavez), who’s their leading scorer, he had that dead to right and it went in and I don’t know how it came back out, but it did,” Desiano explained.

After Christian Griffin’s three-point play gave Bishop Amat (23-7) a 52-49 lead, the Lancers were held scoreless for the final 2 minutes, 41 seconds of the game.

Adam Pellini finished with 19 points for Dana Hills. He scored 15 in the first half before struggling from the line in the second half. He missed six consecutive free throws before making two free throws to bring the Dolphins within one, 52-51.

Two possessions later, Pellini followed his own miss from close range with a one-handed, tip-in basket to give Dana Hills a 53-52 lead with 43.8 seconds remaining.

“He came up when the pressure was on and knocked down those two (free throws) down and had the big tip-in,” Desiano said. “When we needed him the most he came through and that’s all we can ask.”

The Dolphins were up 19-10 after the first quarter. Christian Boehmer (10 points) drilled two 3-pointers in the opening quarter and then Collin Haugh hit a 3-pointer to start the second and the lead ballooned to 14.

“We jumped on them early but I knew that it (the game) was going to get pulled back,” Desiano said. “They’re a good team, and sure enough they made some adjustments and they came back, took the lead and then it was gut-check time.”

Bishop Amat coach Brandon Ertle was proud of how his team battled back from that early hole with help from Ben Shaw and Alejandro Chavez.

“These kids battled all year so I knew we would bounce back,” Ertle said.

Shaw had 19 points, including three 3-pointers, Alejandro Chavez scored 14 points, and Griffin added eight points.

Manuel Chavez, who was averaging over 16 points per game, only managed six points on a pair of 3-pointers.

Desiano said he is approaching his second trip to the CIF-SS semifinals with optimism.

“We talked about being the next team that goes there (semifinal),” he said. “They have a lot of confidence and hey, we got one more to play on Tuesday and after that one we’ll see what happens.”