Stuart Hall knocks off Knights in Lions Club championship

Friday night, there was none better than The Hall as it put together a strong effort to beat a solid Menlo School squad and capture the championship of the 42nd annual Burlingame Lions Club Basketball Tournament.

Both Stuart Hall’s Nigel Burris and Menlo’s Cole Kastner each finished a game-high 20 points. Kastner did it with a workman-like effort in the post, using a his size and strength to carve out space around the bucket and either score on layups or go to the free-throw line.

Burris’ scoring, however, was much more spectacular as he went on to earn tournament MVP honors. The 6-6 sophomore drained five 3-pointers on his final five buckets of the game. He hit three in a row from downtown as The Hall made five straight 3s over the final four minutes of the second quarter to turn a 22-17 deficit into a 32-31 lead at halftime.

The Hall made seven field goals in the second stanza — all 3s.

The Hall, which shot 50 percent from the field on 7 of 14 shooting in the second period, continued its torrid pace in the third, connecting on 7 of 12 from the field as it extended its lead to 10, 48-38 going into the fourth quarter.

Stuart Hall pushed its lead to nearly 20, leading 66-48, with just over a minute to play, but Menlo finished on an 8-0 make it only a 10-point loss.

The game was decided in the third quarter because the Knights struggled with its shooting. Menlo converted on just 2 of 10 shots to open the second half and were outscored 16-7. Other than Kastner’s 20, no other Menlo player scored in double digits. Nate Solomon finished with nine points.

Kastner also had eight rebounds, two assists and two blocks.

Third-place game

Palo Alto 70, El Camino 51

The Colts were an unlikely semifinalist, but they hung around long enough to make the Vikings work for their third-place finish in the Burlingame Lions Club Tournament.

El Camino and Palo Alto were tied at 5-all early, before the Vikings took control with an 18-2 run to lead 27-10 after one period.

But Palo Alto cooled off and El Camino remained steady as the Colts outscored the Vikings 12-9 in the second and trailed 36-22 at halftime.

Palo Alto put the game away in the third, using a 9-0 run midway through the period on its way to outscoring El Camino 16-6.

El Camino got a game-high 21 points from Puneet Kumar, including four 3-pointers. Antonio Roussanov added 10 for the Colts.

Palo Alto, which had 13 players get in the scoring column, got 13 points from Anthony Yu.

Fifth-place game

Carlmont 65, Aragon 50

Despite starting the game down 2-0, the Scots pulled away in the fourth quarter for the win over the Peninsula Athletic League South Division rival Dons.

Aragon was awarded a pair of free-throws before the start of the game because of a Carlmont infraction during warmups.

It did not, however, serve as an omen for the Scots, who used several mini-runs throughout the game to steadily pull away from the Dons.

Carlmont’s 6-8 senior center Ben Ledwith, who finished with a game-high 14 points, scored back-to-back buckets during a 6-0 burst midway through the first quarter. It also jump-started a 16-6 run to end the period as the Scots scored all eight of its field goals on layups as they built a 20-11 lead.

Aragon, however, made a run late in the second quarter to get back in the game with a 13-5 run to close to 34-28 at halftime.

The Dons came back to tie the game at 41-all with 4:46 left when Murphy Caffo scored on a pick-and-roll move.

But Carlmont responded with a 11-3 run to close the period and lead 51-44 going into the final seven eight minutes.

The Dons got as close 53-47 before the Scots put the game away with a 9-0 run.

In addition to his 14 points, Ledwith also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. David Bedrosian added 11 points, including three 3s, while Grant Acker chipped in with 10.

Aragon was led by Sam Manu, who finished with 11 points.

Seventh-place game

Hillsdale 65, Burlingame 40

Calvin Mader-Clark scored 13 points and Will Cotton added 11 points and six rebounds to help lead the Knights to the win over the host Panthers.

Burlingame was led by Michael Lucier’s eight points. Will Uhrich had seven for the Panthers.