Bishop Gorman connected on 17 three-pointers Tuesday night, using a 12-1 second-quarter run to pull away from host Mojave and win 81-58 in a rematch of last season’s Class 5A state championship game.
The second-ranked Gaels (12-7, 3-0 Class 5A Southern League) shot 47.2 percent from beyond the arc, with seven different players hitting at least one triple. Senior guard Dino Roberts and Ty Johnson each knocked down three from deep, while sophomore Hudson Dannels came off the bench to drain five second-half 3-pointers on his way to 15 points.
Johnson also finished with 15 points. Roberts added 14 points, and Braylen Williams chipped in 12. Kameron Cooper grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
Center Tyler Bright, who scored just three points, made his presence felt elsewhere with five rebounds, five assists and six blocked shots. The 6-foot-9 senior frequently found open shooters after receiving the ball in the post.
“Our ball movement as a team is great,” Roberts said. “Tyler’s a great passer. I think he’s one of the best big-man passers in the country. So him moving the ball, finding us from the block, is very important.”
Gorman led 16-15 when Johnson sparked the decisive run with a 3-pointer from the left wing. The Gaels were 10-for-19 (52.6 percent) on 3-pointers in the second and third quarters.
“I think that was Mojave’s game plan, it sounded like, to let us shoot,” Gorman coach Grant Rice said. “Both our point guards, Tyler Johnson and Dino Roberts, they like to penetrate and kick, but we kind of saw they were going under the screens and they were backing off.”
Mojave (13-5, 0-2) shot 32.1 percent from the field and struggled against Gorman’s 2-3 zone. When the Rattlers did penetrate, Bright often altered or blocked shots near the rim.
“He’s big and strong,” Rice said. “When he puts his hands straight up, he impacts the game on the defensive end quite a bit.”
Phillip Gordon led Mojave with 16 points off the bench.
The Gaels have won three straight league games, all against top-five Class 5A opponents: Desert Pines, Coronado and Mojave.
“Early on, we played some tough teams, and that made us really battle-tested,” Roberts said. “So now we’re building on it and starting to find our groove.”
