LV PREP: Hot-shooting Samuel Porras leads Cowboys into semifinals

Chaparral senior Samuel Porras wasn’t pleased with the way he shot the ball in the first half on Tuesday.

He had no complaints about his second half.

Porras hit 8 of 9 shots in the second half and scored 21 of his 30 points after halftime to lead the Cowboys boys basketball team to a 65-59 win over Galena in the quarterfinals of the Las Vegas Prep Championship at Las Vegas High.

“I wasn’t shooting the ball well in the first half, and our coaches told us we need to play harder and come out stronger,” Porras said. “He told us to come out and play harder, and that’s what I did. I came out feeling good.”

Chaparral plays Trinity in the tournament semifinals at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Porras hit his first four shots of the second half, and extended the team’s lead to 41-35 on his second 3-pointer of the third quarter with 3:06 to go in the period.

After Galena had tied the game at 46 on a 3-pointer by Moses Wood, Porras pulled up and answered with a long 3 of his own, making it 49-46 with 6:31 to play, and the Cowboys wouldn’t trail again.

“It was impressive,” Chaparral coach Steven Bentz said of Porras’ second half. “A lot of times when our offense did break down, he was able to break his man down and get a good shot off and hit that for us. It was key.”

The Cowboys led by as many as eight points in the fourth quarter, but Galena forwards Wood and Dylan Voyles kept things interesting. Voyles had consecutive two-hand slams, the second of which cut the lead to 60-57 with 1:37 to play. But Jake Richter made consecutive baskets for Chaparral to essentially ice the game.

“It’s good for our program,” Bentz said of the win. “We’ve had four or five tough teams that we’ve played close, and I just asked our guys to kind of break through and finish today. And they did against a good team.”

Jonathan Tendale added 13 points and seven rebounds for Chaparral, and teammate Marcus Hilliard had 13 rebounds. Richter finished with eight points and nine rebounds for the Cowboys.

Voyles had 25 points, 13 rebounds and five assists, and Wood added 23 points and 13 rebounds for the Grizzlies.

Trinity 74, Rancho 45 — The Thunder used a 12-0 third-quarter run to take control and win going away.

Jovan Sljivancanin had 16 points and 12 rebounds to lead Trinity, which led 34-30 before the 12-0 run.

Justin Holiday had 20 points and five rebounds to lead Rancho. Trayvon Cotton-Taylor added 11 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots for the Rams. He hit a pair of free throws late in the second quarter to tie the game at 27.

Jonathan Salazar had 15 points, and teammate Morissana Camara had 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and four steals for Trinity.

Las Vegas 81, McQueen 47 — Marquise Raybon had 19 points, 11 rebounds and three assists as the Wildcats rolled past the Lancers in a quarterfinal.

Deondre Northey added 16 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals, and Michael Berkabile had 14 points, three assists and four steals for Las Vegas, which plays Woodbridge (Calif.) in the other semifinal at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The Wildcats outscored McQueen 50-18 in the middle quarters. Northey had 13 points in the third quarter on 5-for-6 shooting to help Las Vegas take a 70-34 lead.

Kareem Rowe and Tavian Cheaton-Dayton each had 10 points for the Lancers.

Foothill JV 61, Innovations International 49 — Brooks Riggin had 21 points to lead the Falcons junior varsity over the Ambassadors in a consolation game.

Justin Evans had 29 points to lead Innovations, and teammate Jordan Allison scored 13.