File photo – Liam Dyer

St. Bernard’s senior Liam Dyer had a night he’ll never forget on Saturday while leading his team to a 79-54 win at Arcata.

The Crusaders’ sharpshooter has been one of the most prolific shooting guards in the H-DNL for the past few years and is the reigning Little 4 MVP, but he never had a night like he did on Saturday.

Dyer exploded for a career-high 52 points, including exactly 26 points in each half, to continue his impressive career on the high school courts.

Remarkably, it was the second time an H-DNL player has surpassed the 50-point mark in three weeks, following Arcata’s Luke Lemke’s 51-point performance against Fortuna on Jan.8.

“Liam was another level tonight,” St. Bernard’s head coach Pat Shanahan said. “His teammates saw he had a nice rhythm going and kept feeding him. Few of his shots were forced. He was aggressive and effective.”

The game was close for much of the night and just three points separated the two schools at halftime, with the visitor holding a 33-30 advantage.

But the Crusaders would begin to take control after the break, stretching the advantage to seven going into the fourth quarter and dominating the final period to put an exclamation mark on the game and Dyer’s sensational night.

“Just an incredible performance by an incredible kid and player,” Shanahan said. 

Coincidently, it was Lemke who was tasked with defending the SB sharpshooter for much of the game.

Dyer also had nine rebounds and three assists, coming within one rebound of a double-double, although you get the feeling he won’t be too disappointed about missing out on that.

Check out some video highlights of Dyer’s big night below …

His teammate Carson Costa also had a big night, as the Crusaders won for the second straight night to firmly put the disappointment of last weekend’s loss at Eureka behind them, a defeat that ended the team’s 16-game winning streak.

Costa finished with 21 points, giving the visitors a potent one-two punch on offense, while also adding five rebounds and six assists.

“Carson was dynamic tonight, shooting and cutting with confidence, knowing his teammates trust him to make the right decision,” Shanahan said. “The rest of the team did an amazing job of finding their roles tonight, which for all of them included focusing on the electric athlete and competitor Lemke.”

The Arcata senior, who is also enjoying an outstanding season, finished with a team-high 21 points.

“I was so impressed by his game and even more so by his competitive nature,” Shanahan said of the Tigers standout. “It really took the entire team to at least try to make things challenging for him and Trenten (Hagler) took the brunt of that role and did a fantastic job.”

In addition to his big night defensively, Hagler finished with five rebounds, three assists and two points, while teammate Tyler Hinrichs had nine rebounds, six assists and two points and Luke Brunton chipped in seven rebounds.

With the win, the Crusaders improved to 20-2 on the season, while the Tigers dropped to 10-14.

Jack Luh added 10 points for Arcata, while Elias Gomez finished with seven points.

But the night belonged to Dyer and the Crusaders, who have responded emphatically this week to last weekend’s loss at Eureka.

And they did so without two key players, Prince Latimer (injured) and Garrett Shanahan (sick).

“Proud of our response and growth as a team this last week,” Pat Shanahan said, “With two starters out in Prince and Garrett we had multiple guys step up with some aggressive minutes.