HANFORD -- There will be no fourth meeting between city rivals Hanford High and Hanford West in boys basketball this season. The Kerman Lions made sure of that with a 68-59 victory over the host Huskies on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the CIF Central Section Division III playoffs.

"We knew that we could come in here and play with them and we knew that we had the ability to beat them," Kerman point guard Adrian Ruiz said.

Ruiz was pivotal in the upset of the No. 2-seeded Huskies (22-11). The senior guard scorched Hanford West for 25 points and eight assists.

The Huskies, who normally are a hot-shooting team at the Event Center, struggled from the shooting against a tenacious Kerman zone defense.

"It wasn't really their defense that gave us problems, it was our defense that was the problem," Hanford West coach Tim Caudillo said. "It was our inability to execute the game plan and not let Ruiz drive to the basket. We let him do what he wanted to do and he killed us."

The No. 7-seeded Lions (14-12) move into a semifinal versus North Sequoia League rival No. 3 Washington Union (19-9).

The two split a pair of meetings during league play.

"We know that our defense gives a lot of teams problems and we knew that it was really going to give them problems," Ruiz said.

Kerman forced 20 turnovers, but more importantly the pressured the Huskies into some bad shooting that led to just 37 percent shooting from the field and a frigid 7-of-26 from 3-point land.

"Kerman did a good job of keeping us out of a rhythm," Caudillo said. "Every time that we got something going, they would step up and take the momentum back. We turned the ball over too many times and didn't shoot very well."

The Huskies were hoping to land a second consecutive berth in the Division III finals, possibly facing top-seeded Hanford for the title.

Hanford West led 21-12 after the first period, but was outscored 19-6 in the second period, as Kerman took the lead 31-27 at half.

Ruiz carried Kerman in the first half, scoring 14 points.

Hanford West played a bit better defense on Ruiz in the third period and regained the lead with a 12-0 run to start the third.

But Jose Magana got hot and scored 13 of his 19 points in the stanza.

"Jose really stepped up for us," Ruiz said. "We worked on in practice that I would drive and kick him the ball and he really was hitting the shots tonight."

Magana was also a force on defense, playing at the top of the zone he often came up with steals that led to easy points for Kerman.

In the fourth quarter, Hanford West rallied and cut Kerman's lead to 60-57 on a pair of Roy Ramirez free throws late in the game, but Kerman answered with a bucket but Ruiz and later after a Warren Moon free throw, Magana came up with a big bucket to open up a 64-58 lead with just over a minute to play.

The Huskies were never able to recover.

"I'm disappointed, that's for sure," Caudillo said.

Moon led the Huskies with 13 points. Ramirez and post player Scooter Coleman added 12 apiece. Coleman recorded 20 rebounds, while Moon had seven.

It was tough night shooting for the Huskies' two sharp-shooting senior wings -- Jeff Martin and Carlos Cortez, who combined to shoot 4-of-19 from 3-point range.

The Huskies turned in one of the best seasons in school history, tying a school record for wins with 22.

(Feb. 22, 2008)