Les Schwab Invitational high school basketball live updates: Gonzaga College blows out La Lumiere in championship

Gonzaga College pulls away from La Lumiere in nationally ranked battle; Annie Wright sinks Central Catholic at buzzer for third

La Lumiere's Jalen Haralson drives against Gonzaga College in the Les Schwab Invitational championship in Portland, Oregon. / Photo by Andy Buhler, SBLive

PORTLAND, Oregon — Two nationally ranked high school basketball teams have booked a Monday night showdown for the 2024 Les Schwab Invitational title.

And two of the Pacific Northwest's top teams went head-to-head in a back-and-forth third place game that ended in a buzzer-beater in the region's premiere holiday showcase.

La Lumiere (Indiana) and Gonzaga College (Washington D.C.) are the last teams remaining in the 16-team field and will play for the tournament championship at 8:45 p.m. (Pacific time) Monday night. Annie Wright (Washington) plays Central Catholic (Oregon) at 7:15 p.m.

• Top 20 players in 2024 LSl | Everything you missed in first round

In the semifinals on Sunday, La Lumiere held off Washington small-school power Annie Wright and Gonzaga College toppled Oregon power at Portland State's Viking Pavilion.

Scroll down for live championship updates and everything you missed in the tournament to-date. Refresh this page for the latest:

LSI CHAMPIONSHIP

4Q

-- Derek Dixon rips a 3 to push Gonzaga College's lead to 15 with just under three minutes to play.

-- Christian Gurdak, the 6-foot-9 hulking center, is eating up seemingly everything on the glass and finding easy separation in the post on offense. He's also been one of Gonzaga's most vocal players.

-- Nyk Lewis draws the defense in and dishes a no-look, back-door alley-oop to Carter Meadow to put Gonzaga up 11 with just over four minutes to play.

FIRST HALF

La Lumiere leapt out to a hot start, but shooting cooled off in an even, back-and-forth first half. Virginia Tech commit Christian Gurdak led all scorers with nine points and pulled three of his six first half boards down from the offensive glass, helping the Purple Eagles to a six-board advantage. Jalen Haralson led La Lumiere with eight points

ABOUT LALU: La Lumiere is led by a pair of 5-star guard/wings in 6-foot-6 Notre Dame signee Jalen Haralson and Darius Adams, a UConn-signed shooting guard. LaLu checked in at No. 7 the last time SI updated its national rankings. The Lakers are a perennial national powerhouse that has produced a growing roster of NBA players, recently Jaren Jackson Jr. (Memphis Grizzlies), Jordan Poole (Washington Wizards), Isaiah Stewart (Detroit Pistons) and Jaden Ivey (Detroit Pistons).

ABOUT GONZAGA: Gonzaga College is led by guard Nyk Lewis, a 4-star Xavier signee, UNC signee Derek Dixon and 6-foot-9 center Christian Gurdak, who is signed with Virginia Tech and is the most imposing post player in the tournament field. The Purple Eagles, ranked No. 13 in the country by SI, compete in perhaps the nation's toughest league year-in, year-out in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference and head coach Steve Turner is a longtime coaching institution for Gonzaga who has coached with USA Basketball and the Nike Hoop Summit in the past.

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THIRD PLACE GAME

-- GAME-WINNER! Jeremiah Harshman drills a corner 3 as time expires and Annie Wright walks away with the third place win.

-- Mayhem at Viking Pavilion! Zamir Paschal converts a game-tying layup and is fouled in the process. He misses the free throw, but Jalen Nicholson grabs the rebound and puts back the go-ahead bucket. CC has its first lead of the game with 6.3 seconds left.

-- We have a game! The Rams flip the court off of Jeremiah Harshman's second missed free throw and Duce Paschal scores another contestes transition layup to cut Annie Wright's lead to two with 19.5 seconds left.

-- Isaac Carr converts a three-point play from an offensive rebound, then splashes a contested 3 to pull Central Catholic within four with 40 seconds left. CC fouls Jeremiah Harshman, who misses both free throws.

-- Do the Rams have one final push in them? CC forces an Annie Wright turnover just past halfcourt, then Isaac Carr executes a three-on-one break that ends with a Duce Paschal layup to cut Annie Wright's lead to 10 with 2:04 left.

-- Impressed as we are with Annie Wright's 6-foot-5 guard/forward Martin Kaupanger? Read more about his versatile game and decision to sign with Indiana State, as reported by High School on SI's Todd Milles.

-- Another buzzer, another Martin Kaupanger highlight. This time, Jeremiah Harshman hits the cutting Indiana State commit for a two-handed baseline flush to give the Gators a 10-point lead.

-- Just when Central Catholic appears ready to retake the lead, the Gators strike back. A 3-pointer followed by a fastbreak layup gives Annie Wright an eight point lead and CC calls time with 1:35 left in the third.

-- Just when Central erases the Gators' early lead, Indiana State commit Martin Kaupanger closes the first half by splashing a tough contested turnaround elbow jumper with Wake Forest signee Isaac Carr draped all over him.

-- Central Catholic opens the second quarter moving the ball, finding itself offensively — and converting easy buckets while trimming the Annie Wright lead to one.

-- Annie Wright looks polished to start and has no trouble hitting shots behind Jeremiah Harshman's lead to jump out to an early lead. Central Catholic still looking for rhythm offensively.

Jeremiah Harshman surveys the paint against Central Catholic in the Les Schwab Invitational third place game. / Photo by Andy Buhler, SBLive

ABOUT ANNIE WRIGHT: The Gators are a budding Washington small-school powerhouse that brought back the bulk of a squad that went 24-3 and lost the WIAA Class 1A state championship game on a buzzer-beater last March. They are a first-time LSI entrant, having replaced Long Island Lutheran (led by Kiyan Anthony, son of Carmelo) in this year's field. The Tacoma-area power opened the season with a win over presumptive Washington big-school state favorite and Seattle power Rainier Beach and are led by a senior guard/wing tandem of 6-foot-1 Jeremiah Harshman and 6-foot-5 off-ball guard Martin Kaupanger, who has guarded one through five in Portland this week.

ABOUT CENTRAL CATHOLIC: Combo guard Isaac Carr is a multi-year standout who led CC to the Oregon 6A state title last season. Carr is a Wake Forest commit who was pledged to Oregon this time last year., and he led the Rams with 20 points and four steals in a nine-point win over cross-town rival Jesuit on Saturday. Brothers Duce and Zamir Paschal and Jalen Nicholson, a 6-foot-5 forward. The Rams are coached by David Blue, who has been at the helm since 2015 and previously served as an assistant coach on Gene Potter's staff at Jesuit.

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WHAT HAPPENED IN THE SEMIFINALS?

FINAL: GONZAGA COLLEGE 86, CENTRAL CATHOLIC 56

Gonzaga College rode a 31-point first quarter to a comfortable double-digit second half lead over Wake Forest commit Isaac Carr and Oregon's defending 6A state champions.

Virginia Tech signee Christian Gurdak had a game-high 22 points on 8 of 10 shooting (and 6-for-6 from the free throw line), Derek Dixon added 17 points and five assists and Nykolas Lewis pitched in 13 points, eight boards and four assists.

Zamir Paschal and Isaac Carr each led the Rams with 17 points, but couldn't cut into the Purple Eagles' 22-point halftime lead in the second.

FINAL: LA LUMIERE 52, ANNIE WRIGHT 46

La Lumiere forward Grayson Bennett warms up ahead of the Les Schwab Invitational semifinals against Annie Wright at Portland State on Sunday. / Photo by Andy Buhler, SBLive

Annie Wright entered the LSI as a late entrant and a self-proclaimed dark horse. So a semifinal matchup against national top 10-ranked La Lumiere offered a chance to topple a giant. Ultimately, La Lumiere was too much, pulling away to win a low-scoring matchup that was a possession game at halftime.

UConn signee Darius Adams followed his big quarterfinal performance with a game-high 16 points and three assists, Melvin Bell Jr. had 14 points and Notre Dame-bound Jalen Haralson pitched in 11 points and 10 boards for the Lakers.

Jeremiah Harshman had 15 points and eight assists and Indiana State commit Martin Kaupanger added 13 points to lead Annie Wright, which shot 32 percent from the field. It held hot-shooting LaLu to 35.7 percent and forced 11 turnovers.

The Gators (8-1) took their first loss of the season to the nationally ranked Lakers and will face Central Catholic in the third place game Monday at 7:15 p.m.

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WHAT HAPPENED IN THE QUARTERFINALS?

LA LUMIERE 70, SOUTHRIDGE 48

Darius Adams had a 27-point, 10-board double-double and nationally ranked LaLu breezed past its second Oregon opponent in as many days on Saturday.

Adams, a UConn signee and the nation's No. 5 rated shooting guard (247 Sports), shot 11 of 19 from the field, hit three 3s, doled out four assists and logged two steals in a dominant all-around performance.

Jalen Haralson finished with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting along with eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals and Chuck Love III added 11 points and six rebounds for the Lakers (10-4), who compete in the EYBL Scholastic league, Nike/Paragon's TV-fueled collection of prep schools/basketball factories.

Drew Groenig, who grew up an LSI ball boy with his older brother Kaden, led the Skyhawks with 14 points — the lion's share coming from his four 3-pointers.

CENTRAL CATHOLIC 68, JESUIT 59

Isaac Carr dropped 20 points, Duce Paschal added 18 points and 17 boards (nine offensive rebounds) and both Jalen Nicholson and Zamir Paschal added 10 points apiece to lead Central to a Holy War win over cross-town Catholic school rival Jesuit.

The Rams overcame strong performances from Jesuit's star backcourt of senior Patrick Kilfoil (26 points, five assists, four steals) and sophomore Isaac Bongen (20 points, nine boards). Kilfoil had a productive day at the free throw line, going 10-for-12.

GONZAGA COLLEGE 81, OWYHEE 72

Derek Dixon scored 20 points, as did Nykolas Lewis and big man Christian Gurdak added 19 points and nine boards to lead the Purple Eagles past Idaho power Owyhee on Saturday.

Owyhee was led by Boden Howell's 28 points, 16 points and six dimes from Logan Haustbiet and 14 points from Jayce Allen.

ANNIE WRIGHT 50, WESTVIEW 44

Noah Schow scored 15 points and pulled down eight rebounds, Jeremiah Harshman added 14 points and Reggie Lester pitched in 10 points to lead Annie Wright past James Kefgen (25 points, seven boards) and Oregon Metro League side Westview.

The Gators overcome a slow offensive night from Indiana State commit Martin Kaupanger, who went 2 of 8 from the floor and accrued seven boards, three dimes and three steals.

>> Everything you missed in the first round: Top performers, best storylines

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More Les Schwab Invitational:

• How the Les Schwab Invitational rose to national holiday hoops prominence

• Les Schwab Invitational helps Brayden Bafaro’s legacy live on with ‘Do The Right Thing’ scholarship

• Kiyan Anthony, Long Island Lutheran bow out out 2024 LSI

• 25 top moments in Les Schwab Invitational history

• Pearson Carmichael finishes an elbow shy of Les Schwab Invitational scoring record

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-- Andy Buhler | andy@scorebooklive.com | @AndyBuhler