LA VERNE — One day after the first CIF-SS girls basketball in-season rankings saw La Salle placed at No. 4, the Lancers responded Friday with a win powered by a stout second-half performance. The Lancers limited Bonita to three second-half made field goals and pulled away for a 49-38 victory.

“We held them to 10 points in the second half,” La Salle girls head basketball coach Scott Wiard said of the win. “We finally got into our stance and guarded. We know we’re capable of scoring but they’re going to be games where we have to guard people.”

La Salle (16-2) rebounded from their its defeat in over a month — a 67-34 loss to Sierra Canyon on Tuesday. The Lancers were riding a 12-game winning streak before that loss and were rewarded on Thursday with a No. 4 ranking by the CIF-SS. La Salle relied on another balanced output from its trio of junior Casey Higgins, sophomore Riley Higgins and freshman Aislin Tamez Torres. The trio used their considerable height advantage to shoot over the small Bearcats defenders.

Casey Higgins and Torres were the two Lancers in double figures — 19 and 14 points, respectively. Riley added eight points off the bench, seven in the second quarter.

La Salle relied on its height advantage from the opening tip, giving the ball to Casey down in the low block. The junior scored all six of her first-quarter points from a corner entry pass before shooting over the small Bonita defenders for Bonita (13-4).

But the Lancers’ success in the paint was mostly undone by their four first-quarter turnovers, all resulting in points on the offensive end. Bonita used its pace in transition to nullify the clear size disadvantage and enter the second quarter trailing by one, 12-11. Bonita used an outside-in approach in the second quarter to offset the La Salle height advantage. The Bearcats shot 4-for-4 from beyond the arc and 6-for-10 from the field overall.

Brooke Van Duyne led all scorers in the first half by scoring all 11 of her points, but it was to no avail as the Bearcats and Lancers entered halftime tied, 29-29.

But Bonita’s night began to unravel in the third quarter and it found itself in a shooting slump. Bonita converted its first field goal of the second half with 45 seconds left in the third quarter — a layup by junior Tressa Beaty.

“I think we hit a lot of tough shots,” Bonita girls head basketball coach Taylor Anderson said of the Bearcats shooting in the first half compared to the second half. “Defensively (La Salle) is a solid team and our shots weren’t falling. We didn’t get downhill as much as I would have liked.”

Beaty, who finished with seven points, sank one of three shots in the second half. Junior Lexi Mercado finished with a team-high 13 points, five in the second half.

The Bearcats’ shooting woes doomed them to the 11-point loss.