A sizzling start by Jesuit spelled the ultimate demise of South Medford in the second round of the Class 6A boys basketball state playoffs Friday night in Portland.

The eighth-seeded Crusaders opened an 8-0 lead in just under two minutes and seemingly could’t miss — especially when the visiting No. 9 Panthers seemed to be building momentum — en route to a 60-47 victory.

Jesuit freshman Isaac Bongen knocked down a pair of 3-pointers from the same spot on the right wing in the opening stretch and the Crusaders (18-8) finished 8-for-19 from beyond the arc to keep a steady distance from South Medford.

“We know that they want to shoot a lot of 3s — they live and die by it — and we talked about it,” said Panthers head coach James Wightman, whose team had won 13 straight entering Friday’s contest.

“They’ve had games when they’re not making those shots and then all of a sudden it’s a different game,” he added. “But they’re playing at home and they’re comfortable and that’s what happens. Our hat’s off to them, they’re pretty good.”

A 3-pointer by Ty Dahlin broke the early scoring drought for South Medford (19-7), but Jesuit didn’t flinch as shot after shot seemed to find their mark in building a 10-point lead through one quarter that the Crusaders also took into halftime.

“We wanted to come out and play loose and free and aggressive but we kind of did the opposite,” said Wightman. “We kind of came out like we were shell-shocked a little bit. They come out something like 7-for-7 to start the game and we can’t make a shot.”

As the featured attraction of Jesuit’s defensive focus, South Medford senior point guard Jackson Weiland battled hard for his team-high 23 points on 6-for-13 shooting. He also finished with four rebounds and three assists.

Senior wing Ty Dahlin added 17 points and nine rebounds, with Dahlin and Weiland scoring all but two of the Panthers’ points in the first half. The leading duo combined to shoot 13-for-26 from the field, but the rest of the squad was limited to 3-for-21 shooting — including 1-for-13 from 3-point range.

“Whenever Jackson would look to attack there would be at least two or three guys in the paint,” said Wightman, “so we talked about how we needed to kick the ball out and get guys going backdoor. We had some open looks, we just didn’t really shoot the ball that well. That was kind of our Achilles’ heel with that, too. They were able to shoot the heck out of it and go 6-for-11 (from beyond the arc) in the first half and we were 2-of-11.”

An inability to convert led to the Panthers near a season low with only seven assists for the game.

Still, a 3-pointer by Cole Adee to open the second half looked like it might be the thing South Medford needed to kick-start a comeback down 40-31. Unfortunately for the Panthers, Jesuit had an immediate answer on a 3-pointer by Tyler Curvy and then Pat Kilfoil followed with a pull-up jumper from the free-throw line to halt any momentum.

“We cut it to nine at one point in the third quarter so there was a little bit of life there,” said Wightman, “but they just had the extra one or two guys that were able to make the plays. We just couldn’t get over the hump, and it’s too bad.”

“Every time that it looked like we might be able to have some life, they would come down and swing the ball and they were able to get to the basket,” added the coach. “We talked about taking away their strong hand and their strengths and we still allowed them to catch the ball and go strong hand and go finish.”

Kilfoil finished with 21 points and Bongen had 19 to lead Jesuit, which advanced to the eight-team state tournament at the Chiles Center for the first time since 2020.

Dahlin did a good job of holding 6-foot-6 senior Nico Rafalovich scoreless in the second half after taking on the assignment once Rafalovich scored six first-quarter points and had eight in the first half.

Weiland wound up finishing third all-time at South Medford in career points (1,571) and assists (367), second in career steals (155) and eighth in career rebounds (371) over 92 games played.

Weiland’s 24.0 points per game this season rank No. 2 in single-season scoring average for the Panthers, while Dahlin’s 9.7 rebounds per game (252 in 26 games) moved him into fifth place for a single-season average at the school.

SOUTH MEDFORD (47): Livdahl 2, Weiland 23, Dahlin 17, Shuldberg 0, Mills 0, Johnson 2, Adee 3. Totals: 16-47 11-13 47.

JESUIT (60): Kilfoil 21, T. Curvy 7, Stimpson 0, Barone 0, Bongen 19, Rommel 5, Cleeland 0, Rafalovich 8. Totals: 25-50 2-3 60.

South Medford 13 15 7 12 — 47

Jesuit 23 15 10 12 — 60

3-point goals — South Medford 4-21 (Weiland 2, Dahlin 1, Adee 1), Jesuit 8-19 (Kilfoil 2, T. Curvy 1, Bongen 4, Rommel 1).

MARIST 59, PHOENIX 30: At Eugene, Robin Trenbeath gave Phoenix a lift with all 11 of the Pirates’ points in the first quarter but the senior was held to only one fourth-quarter basket thereafter as Marist clamped down to claim the Class 4A state playoff opener.

Dylan Harper added seven points and Brayden Decker had five for 11th-seeded Phoenix (16-7), which saw a four-point deficit balloon to 18 points by halftime.

Nick Hudson led the sixth-seeded Spartans (16-7) with 13 points.

PHOENIX (30): Trenbeath 13, Pyeatt 0, Ponce 3, Decker 5, Dobbins 0, Williams 2, Hernandez 0, Harper 7. Totals: 13 1-4 30.

MARIST (59): Guerrero 10, Anderson 3, Tyner 4, Holmes 7, Andrus 0, Hudson 13, Erlenbush 12, Rinck 0, Lemley 0, Iverson 6, Relling 2, Christian 2. Totals: 26 0-0 59.

Phoenix 11 3 5 11 — 30

Marist 15 17 18 9 — 59

3-point goals — Phoenix 4 (Trenbeath 1, Ponce 1, Decker 1, Harper 1), Marist 7 (Guerrero 2, Anderson 1, Holmes 1, Hudson 1, Iverson 2).