Bishop Gorman forward Kingston Carmona didn’t score in the first half Wednesday against Desert Pines.

But the 6-foot-5-inch senior wasted little time getting going in the second half.

Carmona caught an alley-oop pass from Nick Jefferson and threw down a dunk on the first possession of the half. He scored eight of his 10 points in the third quarter to help the second-seeded Gaels extend their halftime lead, and they held on for a 67-57 win over the No. 6 Jaguars in a Class 5A boys state semifinal at Clark.

“He ran the court,” Gorman coach Grant Rice said of Carmona, who also had five rebounds, two assists and two steals. “We work on transitioning in practice all the time and we tell the guys to run, and Kingston ran three or four straight times and got layups out of it and built the lead up for us.”

Gorman (23-5) will play for its second straight state championship at 8:15 p.m. Friday at Cox Pavilion against the winner of Wednesday’s late game between Mojave and Silverado.

Carmona took a pass from Kameron Cooper for a layup with 4:36 to go in the third quarter that gave Gorman its biggest lead at 39-21.

The Jaguars (11-10) twice cut the lead to nine points, the last time on a pair of free throws by Tyler Merto with 53.1 seconds to play that trimmed the deficit to 63-54. Gorman made 6 of 8 free throws in the final 1:04 to hang on for the win.

“You know, we had the lead, but we just never could put it out of reach,” Rice said. “So that’s a credit to Desert Pines.”

Junior football standout Jett Washington came off the bench to lead the Gaels with 18 points and six rebounds. He scored six points in the first quarter to help the Gaels take control early, and then scored nine points in the fourth quarter to help seal the win.

Rice said Washington missed about 10 games with a high ankle sprain earlier in the season and has settled into his bench role since coming back.

“When he came back, we had our rotation already, and he’s kind of embraced that,” Rice said. “I mean, everyone wants to start. And I consider him a starter, too. I always tell these guys we have eight or nine guys I consider starters. When he and Tyler Johnson come in right off the bench, they definitely give us a lift with that speed and athleticism when they come in.”

Gorman got most of its early offense thanks to Desert Pines turnovers. The Jaguars turned the ball over 14 times in the first half, leading to 14 Gorman points. But Desert Pines was much cleaner with the ball in the second half, only turning it over once.

“They did a better job,” Rice said. “We might have gotten a little too conservative on defense a little bit there in the second half, but we didn’t want to give up easy buckets by pressuring too much. It’s kind of a give and take on that.”

Jefferson added 14 points and six assists for the Gaels.

“Nick’s been our leader all year,” Rice said. “We like Nick with the ball in his hand, and he makes good things happen.”

Merto had 20 points and eight rebounds to lead Desert Pines, which lost 86-44 to Gorman in the regular season.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.