It’s called art, by Art.

Consider Arthell Rosquist’s defense as artistic as the large cross tattooed on the Warren senior’s left arm.

“I love defense,” said Rosquist, who’s 6 feet 2 with quick hands and fast legs. “If I could sit on defense the whole time, I would love it. I like to steal the ball. I like to take charges. I like to block shots.”

He likes to win basketball games, too.

And Rosquist’s “D” — and even his surprising offense — helped make the sixth-seeded Blue Devils a 63-49 winner over No. 11 Barrington in a Class 4A regional semifinal in Gurnee on Thursday night. Aarias Austin and Adrian Deere scored 19 and 18 points, respectively, for Warren (17-11), whose speedy start was the key in earning the Blue Devils a berth in tonight’s 7:30 p.m. regional final on their home court against No. 3 St. Viator (19-8).

Barrington (18-12) fell behind 17-2 and never recovered.

“We just got off to a poor start and weren’t ready for the intensity,” said junior guard Austin Madrzyk, who came off the bench to lead the Broncos in scoring with 12 points, including three 3-pointers. “From there, once we got settled in, we were fine. I think we beat them after being down 17-2, but the start just killed us.”

Warren hadn’t played in nine days, but the Blue Devils exhibited no rust early on. Deere opened the game with a 3-pointer, Derek Mason fed Austin for a basket, and then Mason finished a fastbreak after Deere swatted a shot with authority.

Barrington burned a timeout with 6:23 on the clock, but its deficit swelled to 12-0 as Austin scored on a layup and knocked down a 3, before the Broncos finally scored on Brad Zaumseil’s drive with 4:09 left in the opening quarter.

When reserve Timmy Pieper floated in a short jumper, Warren led 17-2.

“Coach said in the locker room that we got to get off to a good start on defense, and that’s what happened,” Rosquist said. “(The first) 17 points all came from defense. We got steals, deflections. Everybody was looking up the court. We had good chemistry on the court.”

Barrington closed the quarter with an 8-0 run, getting 6 points from Raymond Tolentino, but Deere’s 9 points in the second quarter had the Blue Devils up 35-21 at halftime.

“I thought our kids made a lot of tough plays,” Warren coach Ryan Webber said. “We came out of the gate with a lot of intensity. It was nice to see our kids excited to play. I thought we did a lot of good things.”

A lot of players played well for the winners. Dre’Von Hill grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds for Warren, while Mason added 8 points. Rosquist dropped in a 3-pointer off a pass from Austin in the second quarter, and his 10 points represented a rare double-digit scoring effort for the second-year varsity player.

“That was just everybody getting me open,” Rosquist said of his offense. “I was just running the floor.”

Rosquist’s defensive effort included 4 steals, 5 rebounds and 1 loud block under the basket.

“He’s tough. He played tough,” Webber said. “He got a lot of deflections, contested a lot of shots, got some rebounds. He runs the floor well. He just does a lot of the things that don’t show up on the shot chart. He brings that element of toughness to your team.”

Warren took a 48-33 lead into the fourth, but after Madrzyk scored on a putback early in the quarter, Webber called timeout and put Austin back in the game, despite the fact that the point guard had 4 fouls. Austin played the rest of the game, helping Warren maintain its double-digit lead the rest of the way.

“It’s the state tournament, man,” Webber said. “You got to roll the dice and you got to have your best players on the floor. You got to trust them.”

Barrington also got 11 points apiece from Zaumseil (three 3s) and Robby Vollman (6 rebounds), but the Broncos shot just 6 of 23 from beyond the arc. Coach Bryan Tucker’s starting five included seniors Zaumseil, Vollman, Tolentino (6 points) and Scott Nelson (4 points).

“They were great leaders. Great character,” Tucker said. “Look at tonight’s game. We’re down 17-2. It would have been easy to say, ‘That’s it. We got no chance.’ Those kids just kept fighting and scrapping. It was really an honor to coach the whole team, led by that group of seniors. They’ll be greatly missed.”