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DANVERS — Identifying an advantage in basketball is easy. All you had to do here yesterday was check out the layup lines. Danvers High had four players 6-foot-3 or taller, including a 6-foot-9 center Peter Merry and a 6-foot-3 “Charles Barkley clone” in Devan Harris. And North Andover High had a bunch of quick and short (under 6-feet) guards. It took time against a scrappy North Andover defense, but eventually Danvers’ height overpowered the Knights to break away with a 56-45 win, advancing to the Division 2 North semis against tonight’s Salem/Belmont winner. Harris was the fire-breathing dragon that the Knights couldn’t slay. He repeatedly muscled his way to the rim, sometimes through a double-team and made North Andover pay for fouling him. He connected on all 11 free throw attempts and finished with 23 points and 18 rebounds. “We knew going in their size was obviously going to be an issue for us,” North Andover coach Paul Tanglis said. “I thought we fought hard. It was one of those things we had to play pretty much perfect D to stay with these guys and I thought we did for about three quarters.” North Andover (13-9) made it difficult for Danvers (19-3) to make entry passes into the post early, and the Knights shot the ball well in the first quarter, opening a 16-13 lead. After surrendering three 3-pointers and 16 points to its guests, Danvers tightened up defensively. North Andover managed only 29 points over the final three quarters. As the Falcons’ defense got stronger, it also started finding ways to pound the ball inside. “We always have a lot of screens going on, so the pick and roll really helped,” Harris said. “Mark (McCarthy) always goes through on a flare screen and he always comes and gets my man. That always helps and always opens me up to get in front of my guy. That’s all I need, a little bit of space.” There were six lead changes in the first half, but the final one occurred when Harris grabbed an offensive rebound on a missed free throw and finished in the paint. The Falcons held a 27-25 lead at that point and never surrendered it, even though they didn’t make it a three-possession game until there were just three minutes left in the game. “We had an advantage, but we knew with their four guards it was going to be hard to get to the point to get that advantage,” Danvers coach John Walsh said. “We knew if the game was played at halfcourt it wouldn’t favor us, but if we could eventually get the ball down around the 3-point line and pound it in, eventually we’d be able to take advantage.” Harris converted a conventional three-point play to give the Falcons a five-point lead (43-38) with 6:22 to play, and he cashed in on a spin move on the right block for the game’s final field goal with 3:45 to play. That hoop pushed the Danvers lead to six (47-41), and the Falcons connected on 9 of 12 free throws down the stretch to close it out. North Andover tried to attack from the perimeter, attempting shots over the Danvers defense, but field goals were hard to come by late in the game. The Knights only managed two field goals in the final 10 minutes of the game. One of the issues was North Andover’s top 3-point shooter, John Enright, was in foul trouble the entire game (he fouled out midway through the fourth quarter). “We’re kind of limited on size and we try to get things going from the outside. We wanted to look to attack (the hoop) but it’s tough with their big guys; they alter shots and take up a lot of space,” Tanglis said. “It would have been nice to get a little something going on the outside and keep them honest on defense, but we weren’t able to put together any kind of offensive run in the second half.” McCarthy and Kieran Beck provided some scoring from the perimeter for Danvers. McCarthy scored 13 points and Beck added 10. Sophomore point guard Wabissa Bede was the only North Andover player to hit double figures with 12 points. North Andover finished its season with a respectable record of 13-9, but it had the feeling almost since the Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic (it beat Methuen to win the title), followed by the school’s first win ever at Central Catholic, that this season was special. In fact, with 15.2 seconds on the clock the North Andover student section started chanting “We love you, Tang-lis! We love you, Tang-lis!” The North Andover coach pointed toward the students and mouthed the words, “Thanks guys,” giving a thumbs up. “The support was amazing all year,” said Tanglis, who was a captain for long-time coach Mike McVeigh, who retired last March after leading the Knights to the Div. 2 North sectional finals. “We have a special bond with our fans. It was a great year. Our team gave us everything we asked for. And maybe we surprised a few people.”