Bishop Guertin's Sam Prescott has the ball knocked away when heading to the hoop during Saturday's Divison I quarterfinal vs. Pinkerton in Derry. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

DERRY – When he played for Pinkerton Academy, current Astros boys basketball coach Mike Dunham usually had the green light to shoot from anywhere on the court, so that’s what he gives his players today.

That green light for his team was a red light Saturday on Bishop Guertin’s season, as the Astros hit a whopping 14 3-pointers, shooting well over 70 percent from the arc to sink the Cardinals 89-84 in the Division I quarterfinals at the Hackler Gymnasium.

“These kids love to shoot,” Dunham said. “It’s a fun way to play. They’re shooting with a ton of confidence right now and playing with a ton of confidence, which is huge.”

Guertin coach Will Horne knew that the game would be high-scoring and his senior team would need to keep up.

“They’re the highest scoring team in the Division,” Horne said of the now-17-3 Astros. “They work (at shooting) in practice, they’re a great team. But I can’t say enough about how proud I am for my guys, how hard they battled, how they stayed in it, they fought. These seniors, they’re really a special group. … They play the right way, they play hard, they never quit.”

That was evident when, after a 9-0 Astros run toward the end of the third quarter that gave the No. 4 seed a 64-48 lead, Guertin (15-5) climbed back to 73-67 with 3:07 to play. But what happened? Astro Brady Sullivan hit a trey and the lead got back to nine and BG didn’t get any closer until a last second shot accounted for the final five-point difference.

To keep up with the Astros, BG needed every point it could get. That’s why going 17 of 25 from the line wasn’t going to get it done.

“We ran out of a little time,” Horne said. “I think if we look back from a coaching perspective, if we make some free throws here and there it changes the game, stops some of their runs with us scoring. But hats off to them, they’re a really good team, really prepared. We had their number the first time we played them (a 78-75 BG win here nearly two months ago). They had ours today.”

Sophomore Joshua Phanor led all scorers with 31 points, thanks in part to five 3’s. Wilson Youseff had four treys toward his 23 points, and Sullivan had 22 points. For the Cards, they got the points they needed from the senior tandem of Connor McGowan (28) and Eli Youssef (21) and had two others, Luca Fabrizio (12) and Sam Woodward (11) in double figures. Normally, that might be enough, but not against the Astros and the way they were scoring. Pinkerton took the lead for good at 16-15 in the first quarter, led 38-32 at the half and 64-50 after three.

But the Astros’ run at the latter part of the third quarter was when the game was ultimately decided.

“We just stopped getting to the rim,” Horne said. “We knew that was our advantage, our size, and being able to finish and getting to the rim. I think we went away from that a little bit, you know. You don’t score for two minutes with this (Pinkerton) team …”

Guertin won 14 regular season games but had a tough quarterfinal matchup on the road for sure.

“It is what it is,” Horne said. “You have to beat good teams to win a championship in this league. We’ll be back, we’ll keep working.”

But with a fairly new team, losing eight seniors that Horne will greatly miss.

“Just a great group of kids,” Horne said. “I can’t ask for more as a coach.”

Except for that red light to turn green.