MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Compared to Tuesday’s quarterfinal, Thursday’s CCS Division II semifinal was light work for Vince Barringer.
Two days after knocking down 10 3-pointers, the St. Francis junior hit another six from beyond the arc as the Lancers beat fourth-seeded Leigh 64-41.
He connected on four of his first five shots to open the second quarter as the top-seeded Lancers opened up a 15-point lead, a cushion that they’d ride the rest of the way to take down a Longhorns team that played without star junior Luca Joe Ewelt, who was out for undisclosed reasons.
Leigh (10-3) did make a decent push in the second half, cutting a 19-point lead to 12 at the end of the third on Zach Norcida’s 60-foot shot at the buzzer, but the Longhorns never got within single digits. Colin Mantle’s deep three cut it to 46-35 with 7:18 left, but the Longhorns went scoreless over the next two minutes.
“We’ve got all of our guys back and we’re all on the same page,” said Anay Nagarajan, who had four blocks on the day.
Nagarajan only scored two points, a pair of free throws late in the second quarter, but had six rebounds and an assist. In all, St. Francis (6-8) dished out 13 assists while the Longhorns mustered just one.
Mantle scored the last of his 14 points on a layup to make it 49-37, but the Lancers scored the next 10 points before emptying the benches, with Harlan Banks getting the last of his eight points and Brylan Lundy scoring four of his nine in the span. Lundy, a junior, didn’t touch the floor in the first half but played almost the entirety of the final two quarters.
“Brylan really hasn’t run our zone offense very much, and getting him acclimated takes time,” said St. Francis head coach Mike Motil. “He got a chance to get to the basket and made the best of it. He’s really active on the boards and earned his minutes. I couldn’t take him off the floor. He was rebounding, defending and doing all the little things to help us win this game.”
Point guard Isaiah Kerr rounded out the balanced Lancer attack with nine of his 11 points coming in the second half, and he grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Norcia matched Mantle with 14, but his only points in the second half came on the circus shot at the end of the third. Gabe Gallmann, Leigh’s lone senior, finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“He’s a program kid. He carried us through some games,” Leigh head coach Joe Goydish said of Gallmann. “He leads us in rebounds and he only weighs 120 pounds. He’s a super young man.”
St. Francis will host sixth-seeded Wilcox (15-3) in Saturday’s championship game. The Chargers pulled off a second straight upset to advance, beating second-seeded Pioneer 58-54.
