SAN ANTONIO — You will hear Wagner head coach Rodney Clark say it often.
"We gotta finish. We have to finish."
And he still can't say it enough.
"Finish, Finish," Clark says to his team doing drills.
This program has been in this position one too many times.
"The semifinal game is hard to win," Clark said "Once you win that you go to the next one. Luckily we've gone to that next one a couple of times so now we have to go win (the big) one."
The 35-5 Thunderbirds are back in the state tournament for the third time in four years.
The previous two trips have ended the same way -- one win short of Wagner's first-ever championship.
"We had so many great teams coming through, they just couldn't follow through so to be back we're trying to prove a point that we're the best team to come through Wagner," junior guard JaSean Jackson.
Senior guard Journee Phillips said, "San Antonio is up-and-coming. San Antonio is up next. We've been together and now we just want to win it all."
With 12 seniors on a 17-player roster, no one will be afraid of the big moment.
"They understand the crowd, the noise, the atmosphere of the whole thing," Clark said.
He is challenging his team.
"What legacy are you going to leave for the school? Like this program, what legacy do you want to leave?"
Close is not good enough anymore.
"We got a chip on our shoulder because we know we're the best team in the state so we just have to come out and prove it," Jackson said.
Phillips said, "And when it's all said and done we want to raise up that state championship trophy as a team and as a program to say we did it."
For Wagner, patience and pain can't be permanent. It is time.
"Showing that those guys before us paved the road to get there and we just finished it."
Wagner plays Mansfield Timberview in the 5A semifinal, a rematch of the 2019 5A Championship game, on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.