It was one of those nights when a first half of basketball by a team was good enough to register a victory no matter how hard the opponent tried the second half to overcome.

#4 Gilbert raced to a 41-20 lead at halftime Saturday night and was the impetus to the Tigers' 71-60 triumph over No. #12 Sunrise Mountain in a 5A boys quarterfinal at The Jungle

Gilbert (16-3) earned a semifinal berth Thursday (March 18) against #1 seed Centennial at Centennial. Centennial advanced with a 67-55 win over #9 Cactus Shadows. The semi will be a rematch from the season-opener won by Centennial, 51-45. Sunrise Mountain finished 11-10 with all of its losses to 5A and playoff teams and 6A Liberty. The Mustangs can be proud of their all-out effort in the second half for coach Gary Rath even if it fell short.

Gilbert's guard tandem of junior Nikko Pentelute and senior Tampa Scott excelled as usual. Pentelute scored 25 points, crashed the boards and did his share of ball-handling. Scott had a bigger night offensively than normal scoring 20 points and running the Tiger offense. 

"Our first half was the difference, no doubt," Gilbert coach Jay Caserio said. "We had one turnover, were plus-8 in rebounding and made shots. Proud of our guys hanging in the second half when some funky stuff was going on. I don't think I've ever seen Nikko miss two free throws in a row. They came at us hard. They play hard for Gary. They made it tough on us."

Gilbert's shooting the first half was exceptional - 61 percent making 17 of 28 from the field. Pentelute had 15 of his 25 points in the first half and Scott 12 of his 20. Scott was 4 for 4 in the second period. Sunrise Mountain made only 2 of 9 shots in the opening quarter and trailed 15-5.

"I liked our shot selection early, they weren't going down," Rath said. "They kept increasing the lead and I used a couple timeouts to try and slow them. We seemed to tense up after the first few minutes and couldn't keep the deficit from being manageable. If you can stay within eight or 10 when things are going bad that's what you'd take. Down 20 at half was just too much."

Sunrise Mountain was forced to double team to force turnovers and had to foul often since the Tigers ended up with only six turnovers for the game. The Mustangs didn't make a major dent in the deficit until the final minute. A layup by leading scorer Colin Carey (team-high 23 points) with 1:09 to play made it 68-60. Sunrise Mountain didn't score again. Gilbert limped to the final buzzer making one of two free throws three times in the final minute. That capped 10-of-21 free-throw shooting by the Tigers the final eight minutes.