Jengus Ercil sparked Cate to a 10-point first-quarter led, and the Rams never let up in beating visiting Northview, 57-40, in a first-round CIF-SS boys basketball playoff game in Division 4A.
The Rams will now face Santa Ana on the road on Friday.
Ercil buried back-to-back three-pointers and scored 13 points to lead the Rams to a 22-12 lead against the team from Covina.
Ercil finished with 15 points.
“Once we jumped out, we never looked back,” said Cate coach Andy Gil. “Today was preparation meets playing together and it was awesome to witness. We shared the ball better tonight than we have all season and we were relentless on defense. We also had an extremely high-percentage shooting day which is always nice in the playoffs.”
Marcus Scudder showed how prepared he was for the CIF opener as he scored a team-high 17 points. He sank a huge three-pointer at the first-half buzzer to put the Rams ahead 35-17.
“He distributed well and was awesome in transition,” said Gil of the sophomore guard.
Babacar Pouye was surrounded by defenders all night, yet he was still a force on the court. He had eight points, 13 rebounds and blocked six shots.
Tyler Martinez scored 10 big points and grabbed six rebounds.