File photo – St. Bernard’s junior Liam Dyer

The St. Bernard’s boys moved within two wins of securing a NorCal championship in basketball with a comprehensive 90-57 win over Biggs in their state playoff opener on Wednesday night.

The Crusaders, who are seeded No. 3 in the eight-team Division-6 bracket, came out strong and never relented, opening up a 24-point lead at halftime and stretching the advantage to as many as 37 in the fourth.

The win sets up a semifinal showdown at No. 2 Stone Ridge Christian in Merced on Saturday night.

And it was achieved with a balanced team performance.

“We got a lot of production from a lot of people,” St. Bernard’s head coach Issac Gildea said. “A lot of guys got in the scoring column. We are well balanced.”

With three other local teams dropping their NorCal openers on Tuesday and Wednesday night, the Crusaders are now the last remaining H-DNL team still playing.

If they win on Saturday and No. 5 St. Vincent de Paul defeats No. 1 Redding Christian in the other semifinal, then Tuesday’s NorCal championship game will be played at St. Bernard’s.

“So proud of these boys and the effort they put out tonight” assistant coach Pat Shanahan said. “If this was our last home game, what a way to showcase all the hard work these boys have been putting in.

“We started the game on a run and continued it for four quarters.”

Liam Dyer scored a team-high 18 points in the win and also had five rebounds, while teammate Prince Latimer added 14 points, seven assists and five steals.

Latimer, who is enjoying an outstanding postseason run, was key to the fast start.

“Prince assisted in the first four possessions, which set the tone for how we were going to play — moving the ball and getting great shots for each other,” Shanahan said. 

Carson Costa added 16 points in the win, while Garrett Shanahan continued to show why he’s so important for the team and finished with 15 points and eight rebonds.

“Liam and Carson displayed their connection offensively with some sharp cuts and nice passes,” Pat Shanahan said. “Garrett also came out strong and was a force on the boards and active defensively.”

Trenten Hagler added eight points, as SB improved to 23-5 on the season, while Luke Brunton chipped in six points and Burke Morrow finished with five rebounds.

But their contributions, along with Tyler Hinrichs, were felt in more ways than that.

“Tyler was physical and smart and instrumental to our success,” Pat Shanahan added. “Luke came in and knocked down a couple of smooth 3s. Trenten ran the offense and got us into our stuff.”

What’s perhaps most impressive about this team is that there are no seniors on the roster and the Crusaders should be even better next winter.

Billy “Buckets” Le also impressed off the bench and brought the fans to their feet with a couple of baskets late in the game on his way to five points, which were his first of the season, while Braedon Simpson also had five points and Tony Pena chipped in three.

“When Billy hit a couple of buckets down the stretch it felt like the walls shook from the crowd noise,” said Pat Shanahan, who added that “Burke, Tony and Braedon played some tough minutes.”

“It was just a well-rounded team performance,” Gildea said. 

The players and coaches are looking forward to Saturday’s big showdown.

“It’s an honor to be playing basketball this late in the season,” the head coach added. “Our guys worked real hard for this. It was one of our goals to get this far.”