St. Thomas Aquinas believes it is much better than the team that lost 71-52 to Source Hoops Class 7A No. 1 and ESPN FAB 50 No. 19 Blanche Ely (26-2) in the BCAA Big 8 semifinals two weeks ago.

Well, guess who gets another shot at the Ely juggernaut Tuesday in the regional semifinals? The No. 3 Raiders (21-4) set up the rematch by turning back No. 2 Northeast 61-53 in the Class 7A regional quarterfinals at Aquinas on Thursday.

“We have a chance against Ely,’’ Raiders coach Steve Strand said. “The two best 7A teams in South Florida will play for a chance to get in the Elite Eight. What more do you want? We are ready for what they do. We hadn’t seen what they did before, we have now. We will play better.”

If Aquinas has any hope at pulling off what would be a monumental upset, it will have to bring an “A” game for four quarters, which didn’t happen against Northeast (16-7).

The Hurricanes, sparked by Richard Lee’s 11-point third-quarter outburst, gave the Raiders all they could handle but were derailed by costly turnovers late in the game.

But on a night when Aquinas’ top scorer Steve Haney went 1 of 10 from three-point range and 4 of 19 overall for nine points, Pape N’Diaye and Kendall Roberts picked up the slack finishing with 15 and 16 points, respectively.

Northeast expected its standout 6-8 center Demetrius Henry to dominate his matchup with Aquinas’ bigs, but that never materialized. Aquinas 6-8 center John Hunter, along with a collapsing zone, helped hold Henry to 11 points and made the supposed mismatch a wash with eight points and nine rebounds.

The sharp-shooting Lee caught fire in the third quarter with 11 of his 16 points, including three three-pointers to put the Hurricanes ahead 46-44 after three quarters.

Aquinas went ahead 57-49 on two free throws by Jason Wilkinson with 1:33 left.

• NE (16-7): Ray 5, W. Alerte 6, Calder 4, Henry 11, Lee 16, Gaberlavage 11. STA (21-4): Roberts 16, Bombich 7, N’Diaye 15, Palov 2, Haney 9, Hunter 8, Wilkinson 2, Harris. Half: 31-31. Three-pointers: Ray 1, Lee 4, Bombich 1, N’Diaye 1, Roberts 2, Haney 1. Rebounds: Hunter 9. Assists: Bombich 4.