Lancers Bury Vikings, 75-53

La Salle's Michael Edwards (1) drives hard to the basket. Photo by Anne Cypress.

(Sierra Madre) – La Salle took advantage of a depleted Blair line-up to advance to the second round of the Division 4-A CIF-SS playoffs with a convincing 75-53 victory.

It didn’t take long for the sixth-seeded Lancers to take control of the game as Matt Nolan and Ian Schuler scored at will during a 16-6 run to end the first quarter.

“Any time your big guy can step out and hit three’s,” said La Salle head coach Steve Goldstein.  “The lane opened up for some drives early.”

Nolan, who led the Lancers with 19 points, scored 12 of his points in the first quarter, while Schuler added 10 in the opening stanza.

The Vikings knew they were in trouble early as they entered the game without the services of Jasper Cobb and Marcus Bagnerise who were academically ineligible.

Blair’s Ceandre Dade led all scorers with 26 points and filled in admirably in the absence of the high-scoring pair.  Marsalis Ellison also stepped in to score 15 points for the Vikings.

La Salle's Ian Schuler (22) helped the Lancers jump out to a quick lead. Photo by Anne Cypress.

The cold-shooting Blair offense continued to struggle against La Salle’s man-to-man defense and was held without a basket for 4:52 in the second quarter.

After a slow start to begin the second half, the Lancers finally awoke late in the third when Nolan and Michael Edwards buried three-pointers to increase the lead to 24 points after allowing the Vikings to get within 18.

“I don’t know if we (La Salle) were flat,” said Goldstein.  “We didn’t get back very well early on, but we went on a real nice run at the end of the third quarter and into the fourth.”

La Salle would ice the game away early in the fourth quarter as they went on a 12-0 run to extend the lead to 34 points.

Blair tried to make a game near the end with a 13-2 run to end the game.

BLAIR                    12      5      15      20      53

LA SALLE              28     14     14      19      75

SCORING:

BLAIR – Ceandre Cade 26, Marsalis Ellison 15, Lance Green 8, Marcus Spruill 4

LA SALLE – Matt Nolan 19, Michael Edwards 15, Ian Schuler 14, Josh Anderson 13, Ryan Akinbayode 6, Darryl Oliver 6, Cedric Alfonso 2

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