Westview's James Kefgen (24) drives on Wright's Noah Schow during the first half of Saturday's LSI quarterfinal at PSU.

PORTLAND -- The Westview Wildcats put up a spirited fight for all but three minutes of their loss to the Wright Gators on Saturday.

But the final three minutes of the second quarter were the Wildcats’ undoing.

Wright’s Noah Schow finished with a team-high 15 points, eight rebounds, and five assists, leading the Gators to a 50-44 victory over Westview in Saturday’s quarterfinals of the 28th Les Schwab Invitational boys basketball tournament at Portland State University’s Viking Pavilion.

Jeremiah Harshman had 14 points and Reggie Lester had 10 points as the undefeated Gators (8-0) of Tacoma advanced to Sunday’s 7:15 p.m. semifinal against the La Lumiere (Ind.) Lakers.

“I think we played pretty well,” Lester said. “I’m excited to play another good team and hopefully we can come out with another win.”

Westview’s James Kefgen scored a game-high 25 points, hitting seven three-pointers along the way.

The Wildcats (4-2) were within striking distance until the final 2:15 of the second quarter when the Gators went on a 12-4 run to take a 31-20 halftime lead.

Westview staged a fourth-quarter rush that trimmed a 15-point deficit to five with less than a minute to play, but that was too little, too late.

“That’s a really good barometer for where we’re at,” Westview coach Mike Wolf said. “Wright presented us some different challenges, just in terms of their overall length and athleticism and toughness. 

“We let them set the tempo and speed us up a little bit. We tried to match that instead of counter it and play to our strength, which is poise and toughness. I don’t think we’re ever going to be the fastest team on the floor, but our inability to accept that tonight was part of the problem.”

Both teams were coming off close wins — Westview 64-58 over Camas (Wash.) on Thursday and Wright 52-47 over Nelson on Friday — so the first quarter and a half of Saturday’s quarterfinal saw both teams poking and prodding at one another, trying to form a plan of attack.

The Gators, last season’s WIAA 1A runner-up, had a 19-16 lead when their game suddenly took off with just under three minutes to play in the first half.

It started with Schow, the 6-foot-6 senior forward, knocking down a turnaround jumper along the baseline. Then Harshman made two baskets — a running, right-handed bank shot in the lane and a three-pointer from the top of the arc. Martin Kaupanger followed with a two-handed dunk off a Westview turnover. And, finally, Lester drilled a three-pointer just before the halftime buzzer.

Westview’s response? Two Jason Grady free throws, a Kefgen two-point field goal, and five other empty possessions -- three that ended with turnovers.

“The pace got to Wright’s liking,” Wolf said. “We sped up. It led to some turnovers. We couldn't finish around the basket. And there were some things offensively, some of our reads and actions that are open against teams with less length, all of a sudden, that passing lane wasn’t there. Or it looked open and it closed faster than expected.

“I thought our defense was as good as I could have hoped against them, but we didn’t execute offensively … and, ultimately, I think that made a difference.”

And what was it that got into the Gators late in the second quarter?

“Just adjusting to Westview’s style of play,” Wright coach Dominique Williams said. “I tell our guys, ‘It’s going to be different every game, so just read the room and see what we’ve got.’

“We started to see where we could attack them from and then we were just playing the way we play, just being our natural selves. I think that’s what happened when we took up that lead.”

Schow said the Gators stepped up their intensity at both ends of the floor.

“We just really signed in on defense and didn’t allow any good shots,” he said. “Then we took our time, got our own shots, and ran the things that we like to run.”

The Gators extended their lead to as many as 15 points when Brian Holiday scored on a layup that made it 47-32 with 4:32 to play in the fourth quarter.

Westview mounted a late run behind Kefgen, the 6-3 senior transfer from Liberty, who scored 11 of his 25 points in the final 4:10. His final three-pointer came with 23 left and pulled the Wildcats within 49-44, but that was as close as they could get.

“We couldn’t find a counterpunch to get back in the game soon enough,” Wolf said.

Wright shot 43.5 percent (20 for 46) from the field with five three-pointers to Westview’s 32.6 percent (14 for 43) with nine treys. The Gators also had the edge in rebounds (29-28), assists (15-13), blocked shots (7-2), steals (10-6), and turnovers (14-19).

“Honestly, I think we could have done better,” Schow said. “We had a big lead — 11 at halftime and at one point in the second half it was 15 — and then we just kind of let up toward the end.

“I mean, I’m happy that we pulled through. Everybody who played did a good job. Everyone off the bench did their part. We’ve just got to do a better job of closing out games.”

Westview returns to the court at 5 p.m. Sunday to face Metro League rival Southridge, which dropped a 70-48 decision to La Lumiere in Saturday’s late semifinal.

“I’m excited to be here at this level, competing the way we are in late December and the quaterfinals of the LSI … sign me up,” Wolf said. “The nature of tournament basketball is you have to turn the page even fast than we had to on Thursday. You can sit with a win a little bit longer, but we also had a day to prepare.

“Now, we’ve got to learn from whatever we need to only if it relates to the team that we play tomorrow.”

In Saturday’s other quarterfinals:

Central Catholic 68, Jesuit 59: Isaac Carr scored 20 points and Duce Paschal had 18 points and 17 rebounds to help send the Rams in Sunday’s semifinal against Gonzaga of Washington, D.C., an 81-72 winner over Owyhee (Idaho). Central Catholic outscored the Crusaders 20-11 in the third quarter to take a 44-35 lead. Pat Kilfoil scored a game-high 26 points and Isaac Bongen had 20 points and nine rebounds for Jesuit.

La Lumiere 70, Southridge 48: Darius Adams had 27 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists, and Jalen Haralson had 14 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists to lead the Lakers of La Porte, Ind., over the Skyhawks of Beaverton. Drew Groenig scored 14 points with six rebounds and Keenan Reckamp had 13 points to lead Southridge.