By ROB JONAS

TROY – Two Girards were more than enough for No. 2 Glens Falls to advance into the Section 2 Class B boys basketball semifinals.

Joseph Girard III poured in 48 points, and cousin Trent Girard sank six three-pointers to finish with 18 points in the Indians’ 93-66 victory over No. 7 Johnstown in a quarterfinal contest Friday, Feb. 22, at Hudson Valley Community College,

“That was fun,” said Joseph. “That makes it a lot easier on myself and a lot easier on my team.”

“When he’s going, I get going, and when I’m going, he gets going,” said Trent of the on-court synergy between him and Joseph.

Trent was the first to warm up for Glens Falls, as he drained three shots from beyond the three-point arc in the first quarter. The Syracuse University-bound “JG3” was not far behind, as he started casually putting up NBA-range threes that found nothing but the bottom of the net. By halftime, Joseph had 27 points – more than the entire Johnstown team.

“Our game plan going in was we wanted to limit Joe, and we wanted to limit Trent,” said Johnstown coach Matt Guzielek. “When those two are shooting the way they were tonight, they’re hard to stop.”

Johnstown played better in the second half, especially at the offensive end, but it simply wasn’t enough to keep up with the Girards.

“We outscored them [44-43] in the second half, but I still felt like we weren’t playing well,” said Guzielek.

Matthew Boyle had 29 points, while Ethan Wagar and Keegan Feinour each contributed 12 points for Johnstown.

Glens Falls will face No. 3 Watervliet in Monday’s semifinal game at Cool Insuring Arena – a facility the Indians are very familiar with.

“We’ve had two games in there [this season], and we’ve had a tough time both times,” said Trent Girard. “It is definitely a fun place to play [for us], but it’s also a tough place to play.”

A victory over Watervliet could set up a championship match-up with No. 1 Schalmont, the team that eliminated Glens Falls in last year’s Class B semifinals. But Joseph Girard said the focus is on Watervliet first.

“We just gotta play our game,” said Joseph. “We’ll look at [Watervliet] a little bit more in depth and prepare for Monday.”

Schalmont advanced to the Class B seminfinals with a 65-42 victory over No. 8 Schuylerville Friday at HVCC. Shane O’Dell scored 28 points to lead the Sabres, who next face No. 4 Catskill in Monday’s semifinal. Cayden Rutland led Schuylerville with 19 points.

Photos by Rob Jonas. Copyright 2019 by Capital Region HS Sports.