Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin talks to his players during a time out in Friday night’s game.

By Ray Hamill — On to the state playoffs.

On Friday night, the St. Bernard’s girls got back to winning ways to extend their season on the basketball court with a dominating 74-50 victory over Mission San Jose in the North Coast Section Division-3 third-place game.

Playing in front of a large home crowd at St. Bernard’s, the Crusaders took control of the game with a big first half and led by 17 (39-22) at halftime.

They continued to roll in the second half, stretching the advantage to 24 (57-33) after three quarters.

The lopsided win was a nice response from the team after a semifinal loss to eventual Section champs Miramonte on Tuesday, and it not only secured third place for the Crusaders but also qualifies them for the upcoming state playoffs.

The brackets and seeds for the NorCal tournaments will be announced on Sunday.

Head coach Matt Tomlin was impressed with how his players responded.

“The girls studied film, practiced hard for two days on the game plan, and then executed at a very high level tonight,” he said. “That was a big-time performance for the amazing Lady Crusaders.”

It was also a balanced team performance with nine players scoring as Tomlin went deep to his bench with the game well in hand long before the final buzzer.

The always dangerous Carli Baum led the way with a team-high 16 points, while teammates Samantha Sundberg and CJ Figas were equally impressive and each added 15 points.

But they weren’t the only players to impress for the home team.

“We got electric offensive performances from Baum, Sundberg and Figas, and several other players came off the bench and hit big shots,” the coach said. “It was a total team performance tonight and I am proud of the team.”

Tally Williams added eight points, but the sophomore was even more impressive at the other end of the court, inspiring her teammates with a big defensive performance.

“Tally Williams took on the defensive assignment of guarding their best player, and she locked her down for four quarters,” Tomlin said. “Our team fed off Tally’s defensive energy.”

Alyssa Boham added six points, Kayla Maples and Sariah Vainuku each had five points and Logan Tallman and Macie Wantt both chipped in two points to round out a strong team performance.

The Crusaders will now play the waiting game to see what seed and bracket they receive on Sunday, before opening the state playoffs on Tuesday.

But Tomlin and his players won’t fear anybody after Friday’s performance and the way they have matched up with far larger schools in the NCS Division-3 bracket over the past two weeks.

“We are looking forward to our seeding in the state tournament next week and are ready for the challenge of playing anybody, anywhere, any time,” the coach said.

With the win, the SB girls improved to 22-8.

The Mission San Jose girls closed out 17-13.

Three days after edging St. Bernard’s in the semifinal, Miramonte won the Division-3 section crown with a 57-47 win over Benicia on Friday night.