Left: Hector Rivera goes up for two. Center: Dylan Straley attempts to catch a rebound. Right: Dalton Parsons is heads above the competition. Typically, hornets attack at close range, but not Dalton Parsons.

The sophomore wing drained four 3-pointers in the first quarter en route to 27 points as Lometa cruised to an 80-52 win over Veribest in bidistrict playoff action Tuesday.

Parsons finished the night shooting a blistering seven-of-17 from behind the arc.

"They'd come out on him and he'd back up a little farther and make it and then they'd back him up a little farther and he'd still shoot and make it," head coach Wendell Bradley said. "He was just on fire. "He pretty much had the green light."

Teammate Brandon Faubion was also on point in the opening quarter, posting 10 of his game-high 28 points in the first eight minutes. David Cruz finished with a dozen points.

Despite having the early hot hand, the Hornets could not pull away. After the first quarter, Lometa owned a slim one-point advantage.

PHOTOS BY CHERI JAY-WIENECKE At halftime, the Hornets were ahead 37-28, but everything changed after intermission.

Lometa exploded in the third quarter both offensively and defensively, taking over the contest with another barrage of treys.

Parsons chipped in two more 3- pointers, while senior wing Bubba Salinas connected on a trio of longrange bombs.

While Salinas and Parsons did their damage from the outside, Faubion went to work in the paint, scoring 12 points in the quarter.

"In the third quarter, we just blew it open," the Lometa coach said.

Defensively, the Hornets held Veribest to just two field goals, but repeatedly sent the Falcons to the line where they scored seven points.

By the time the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter, Lometa had the game well in hand, and managed to tack on another 18 points in the fourth. Veribest could only muster up 10.

"If we had not scored a point [in the fourth quarter], we still would have won by 10 points," Bradley said.

The Lometa win sets up a showdown with Knippa on Friday at 7 p.m. in Harper.

The Rockcrushers carry just nine players on their roster but have a bevy of scorers who are capable of putting up 20 or more points on any given night.

"If you spend a little too much attention on one, then another one will hurt you," Bradley said. "They've scored 80 [points] 12 times this year and scored in the 90s twice.

"They're able to put some points on the board."