Hamilton Christian trailed in the early minutes of the first quarter, then turned to senior Seth Ned and its defense and never looked back. The fourth-ranked Warriors beat No. 1 Crescent City 54-51 in the Select Division IV semifinals on Tuesday at Burton Coliseum.
The win puts the Warriors (19-7) in the finals for the first time since 2019. The Warriors will play the winner out of No. 2 Lincoln Prep and No. 3 Southern Lab on Friday at 2 p.m. in the finals.
Ned scored nine points in the first eight minutes, including a pair of 3-pointers that put the Warriors up 11-2 with 4:34 left in the first quarter.
The Warriors held the Pioneers to 4 of 15 shooting in the first quarter. A 9-2 run capped by a bucket in transition by Chris Rideau gave the Warriors a 20-6 lead with 1:01 left in the first quarter.
"We watched some film, and we knew from the Martin Luther King games that they were so aggressive at going at the boards," Hamilton Christian head coach Dexter Washington said. "When we got the ball, we knew we were getting up the court.
"There was no question about it. And we got up the court, and we got some easy buckets."
Chris Rideau's three two minutes into the game gave the Warriors their first lead, 5-2.
"I'm going to tell you what really made me have a lot of confidence when Chris Rideau hit that first three of the night," Washington said. "I knew something good was going to happen because Chris is a sporadic shooter and he made that first three. We came back and made a layup and got fouled, I looked up and all of a sudden we started creeping.
"We got a chance. All I told the guys was to keep it close, and we can win it."
Ned finished with 15 points. Sophomore Javon Vital had a triple-double with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists despite playing the final seven minutes with four fouls. Rideau added 13 points, including seven in the first quarter.
Hamilton struggled in the third quarter and saw their 13-point lead, 41-28, shrink to four by the fourth quarter. Crescent City (18-12) closed the quarter with a 10-1 run in the final 2 minutes and 37 seconds. Frederick Green hit a jumper at the buzzer to close the gap to four points.
Crescent City tried to keep up with the Warriors' fast pace of play and cut the Warriors' lead to two points twice but struggled with fouls as three starters, fouled out. Last year's Louisiana Sports Writers Association Class 1A MVP Dwight Magee fouled out just 1 minute and 32 seconds into the second half and finished with five points. Cam'Ron James and Frederick Green fouled out in the fourth quarter. Despite being down three starters, Crescent City cut Hamilton's lead down to 53-51 with 23 seconds left on a Freddie Scott 3-pointer.
"We knew they were coming," Washington said. "We just didn't know when.
"We knew late in the third. At some point, I told the coach, they're going to make a run. They're not state champions because they're not going to make a run."