Prep Basketball Playoffs / THIRD ROUND : DIVISION II-AA : North Shooting Lights Up Edison

Before Edison’s basketball playoff game against top-seeded Riverside J.W. North Friday night, Charger Coach Jon Borchert worried about the Huskies’ talent, speed and athleticism.

“If they turn this into an athletic contest,” Borchert said, “then we’re in trouble.”

Instead, North’s Edward Gray turned it into an outside shooting contest. And he and the Huskies won big.

Gray scored a game-high 26 points as J.W. North opened a 24-point first-half lead and coasted to a 69-47 victory over unseeded Edison in a Southern Section II-AA quarterfinal game at Ocean View High.

J.W. North (28-0) advanced to Tuesday night’s semifinals against Inglewood. The Huskies lost to Mater Dei in the Division I-A semifinals last season.

The loss ended a great playoff run for Edison, which had upset Glendora in the second round. The Chargers ended the season 19-9.

J.W. North was coming off a poor shooting performance in a 60-58 victory over Woodbridge in the second round. The Huskies shot less than 25% from three-point range.

But the Huskies had no trouble against Edison as Gray, who is headed to Tennessee on a basketball scholarship, took over late in the first quarter.

Micah Kroeger kept the Chargers in it early, scoring their first nine points. Then Gray, who was quiet early, scored nine points as J.W. North pulled away with an 11-2 run in the final 3 minutes 16 seconds of the quarter.

The Huskies kept up the pace in the second quarter, hitting their first eight shots, including two three-pointers by Gray and another by Benjamin.

J.W. North led by as many as 24 points in the quarter. Edison trailed, 43-21, at halftime.

“I hope it was their (Huskies’) good shooting and not our poor defense,” Borchert said of J.W. North’s first half. “They played well. They’re a good team.”

Gray hit seven of 14 shots from the field, including three of five three-pointers, and was nine for 11 from the free-throw line.

Center Orie Benjamin scored 13 of his 17 points in the first half for J.W. North, which made 18 of 26 shots before halftime.

“We’ve had trouble with focusing (offensively),” J.W. North Mike Bartee said. “It’s not so much what we do out there (in a game) but what we do the day before in practice.”

The Huskies cooled off a bit in the second half, making only six of 20 shots, but relied on good free-throw shooting to hold off Edison. Gray made seven of nine free throws in the fourth quarter as the Huskies made 14 of 18 attempts in the second half.

Ben Beard hit two three-pointers early in the third quarter as Edison cut the lead to 16, but J.W. North pulled away and led, 55-37, at the start of the fourth quarter. Edison came no closer than 22 the rest of the way.

Kroeger, who fouled out with 3:24 left in the game, led Edison with 21 points. Kyle Murphy added eight points and seven rebounds for the Chargers.