Bullard recovers from shaky start to easily advance in Central Section basketball playoffs

Bullard High got its Central Section Division I boys basketball playoff run off to a solid start Friday night with a 78-53 quarterfinal victory over St. Joseph.

But the start wasn’t too promising.

The visitors from Santa Maria took a 6-0 lead before No. 2 seed Bullard caught fire from behind the 3-point line to spur a 27-8 run to finish the first quarter.

Senior guard Chris Estrada made two 3-pointers en route to 13 points for the game.

“We’ve been down many times before,” Estrada said. “Last year we were down by 12 in the Valley Championship and we came back and lost by 2. It’s nothing new.”

Bullard (25-4) kept the pressure on in the second quarter but St. Joseph clawed its way back to trail by only seven at halftime. That was as close as St. Joseph (23-9) got, though, in suffering its second loss to Bullard this season. Bullard won the first meeting 76-52 last month at the Edison Super Saturday showcase.

Bullard coach Tim Amundsen said he was happy with the way that his team responded after the opening minutes. “They made runs and we stayed together. We had a couple guys in foul trouble. Guys stepped up and played and our strength is staying together and our depth.”

Bullard hosts No. 6 seed Bakersfield High, which defeated No. 3 Arroyo Grande 57-56, in the semifinals Wednesday night.

Top-seeded Clovis West (27-3) routed No. 8 Edison 86-68 and No. 4 Clovis North beat No. 5 Clovis East 73-58 in Friday’s other quarterfinals, setting up an intradistrict rubber match in the other semifinal. Clovis West and Clovis North split Tri-River Athletic Conference meetings this season.

Semifinal winners advance to the Saturday, March 2 8 p.m. game at Selland Arena for the section title.