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Defending champion Silsbee races to 80-61 rout of Somerset in semifinals

The Tigers jumped out to fast start, building a 33-point lead.

UIL Boys Basketball State Tournament

Thursday-Saturday, Alamodome

(Results, schedule for San Antonio-area teams)

Class 5A semifinals: Justin Northwest 65, Alamo Heights 54, Thursday

Class 4A semifinals: Silsbee 80, Somerset 61, Friday

Silsbee looked every bit like a defending state champion Friday, rolling to an 80-61 blowout of Somerset in the Class 4A state semifinals at the Alamodome.

The Tigers led 30-9 after one quarter, 48-20 at the half and were up 69-39 heading into the fourth period. Silsbee was ahead by 33 with 1:10 left in the first half and in the final minute of the third quarter.

Silsbee (29-8) will play Dallas Carter (33-5) for the 4A state championship Saturday at 7 p.m.

Somerset, playing in its first state tournament, finished its historic season 28-10.

Credit: (David Olmos davidolmosphotography.com / Special to Kens5.com), KENS
Silsbee junior guard Jordyn Adams scored a game-high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 2 of 4 from the three-point line in the Tigers 80-61 victory against Somerset in the Class 4A state semifinals Friday at the Alamodome.

"One of our keys to victory was we've got to win the first quarter, at least, have a lead in the first quarter," Bulldogs coach Bryan Penna said. "The same game plan that we had for Brazosport and the same game plan that we had for West Oso. The difference was we won those two quarters. This one, we were down big in the first quarter."

Somerset beat Freeport Brazosport and Corpus Christi West Oso in the Region IV-4A Tournament last week, but it didn't take long for Somerset to realize Silsbee was a cut above the competition they had faced this season. The Tigers are in the state tournament for the third consecutive season and eighth time in school history.

"One thing that scared me the most was their team speed, and they pushed, and pushed and pushed," Penna said. "We had a couple of balls that got out of our hands, just away from us. They hit four threes in that first quarter that really hurt us."

The Tigers shot 66.7 percent (12/18) in the first quarter and were 4 of 7 from the three-point line. Plagued by 10 turnovers, Somerset made 3 of only 7 shots it was able to get off in the opening quarter. The Bulldogs finished the game with 20 turnovers, and Silsbee converted them into 27 points.

Guard Jordyn Adams paced Silsbee with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 2 of 4 from beyond the arc. Braelon Bush (14), Kalon Barnes (13) and Chris Martin (11) were the other Tigers scoring in double figures. Barnes and Devin McCain finished with 11 and 10 rebounds, respectively.

Silsbee shot 54.1 percent (33/61) for the game and made 6 of 21 three-point attempts.

Senior guard Isaiah Rivera led Somerset's scoring with 19 points, hitting 7 of 18 shots. He also had a team-high eight rebounds. Jacob Harvey (10) was the only other Somerset player to score in double figures.

The Bulldogs shot 44.1 percent (26/59) for the game and were only 1 of 9 from beyond the arc.

"They're certainly talented," Penna said. "I think I was most impressed with No. 5 [Jordyn Adams]. I thought we did a fantastic job on No. 4 [Braelon Bush]. Everything I saw, that little guy can go. But we did a good job of keeping him from getting off. No. 5, ultimately, is the one who really hurt us the most.

"Every time we'd make a little run, every time we forced a contested jump shot, Barnes did a really good job of crashing the boards. That was one of our key factors, keeping that guy from boarding. We've pounded the paint pretty much since district play, and that guy, he worked us. He was hard to keep off the glass."

Somerset started slowly, but then again, Silsbee had a lot to do with that. The Tigers simply dominated the Bulldogs on both ends of the court.

"I think we were nervous," Rivera said. "It was our first time in the state tournament, so playing on this big a stage made us nervous. We knew they were a good team."

And Silsbee went out and proved it.

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