By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Jaice Gardner and KJ Franklin combined for 24 points in a ‘defensive’ type of victory. La Salle didn’t shoot particularly well from the field or the free-throw line, but they grinded out a 47-39 victory over visiting Eisenhower of Rialto on Wednesday night in the first round of the CIF-SS […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
Jaice Gardner and KJ Franklin combined for 24 points in a ‘defensive’ type of victory.
La Salle didn’t shoot particularly well from the field or the free-throw line, but they grinded out a 47-39 victory over visiting Eisenhower of Rialto on Wednesday night in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 2-A playoffs.
The win, coupled with a Muir’s 72-50 victory over Muir, sets up a Friday showdown at La Salle.
The Lancers will host the Mustangs (18-9) at 7 in an all-Pasadena match up.
The game wasn’t nearly as close as the score might indicate.
The Lancers (20-9) held Ike to just 12 second-half points.
Eisenhower (11-16) didn’t score for the first five and a half minutes of the fourth quarter and got some garbage points late after the game was decided.
Gardner finished with 11 points, including a monster dunk in the second half to get the crowd and his teammates started.
“My role is to help this team rebound,” Gardner said. “We were trying to get into our flow and not rush shots. We started rebounding in the third quarter and started playing defense.”
Franklin led the Lancers with 13.
“It’s my job to lead these guys to a win,” Franklin said. “We just settled down in the second half, and do what we do best. It’s going to be a big game against Muir and is the type of game we live for.”
Aaunya Carter led Eisenhower with 16 of their 37 points.
La Salle hit less than 50-percent of their free-throw attempts, and was something Coach Mike Lynch wasn’t real happy about after the game.
“(What we did) well was defense,” Lynch said. “That’s what did it. The challenge was making free throws. We didn’t even shoot 50-percent, and were up 14, or 15 (points), with the game in hand and didn’t make them. We went down in size (in the second half) and the match up is hard for us, so we downsized to be able to match up. This was a good team win. Muir is an excellent team, from a tough league, but we’re going to give it our best shot.”
Jason McDonald had 7 points for La Salle, while both AJ Akobian and Darius Henderson had 6 points apiece for the Lancers.
Box Score:
Eisenhower: 9-7-11-12-(39)
La Salle: 11-9-17-10-(47)
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