SAN FRANCISCO – A close game in the first quarter quickly turned into a blowout.

No. 6-seed City College of San Francisco held a narrow 19-17 advantage after 10 minutes of its second-round Northern California Regional Playoffs game on Saturday night against No. 22 Lassen Community College.

But the Rams opened the second quarter with a 7-0 run, a sign of things to come. CCSF eventually outscored Lassen 42-11 in the period to roll into halftime with a commanding 61-28 lead that was never challenged.

All-State forward Talo Li-Uperesa once again led the Rams on offense, posting 22 points and 8 rebounds. Amira Lama also had a solid game, earning a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Stacy Angel-Haro and Teuila Tuiasosopo made major contributions off the bench. Angel-Haro scored 14 points while Tuiasosopo totaled 11 points and 7 rebounds.

The Rams are just one victory away from reaching the state championships. But they'll have to win on the road. CCSF will head to the Central Valley to take on No. 3-seed College of the Sequoias in Visalia on Saturday (Mar. 4) in one of four Northern California Regional Finals. Game time is set for 5:30 p.m.

In the other matchups, No. 1 Butte (25-3) hosts No. 9 Feather River (20-7), No. 5 San Joaquin Delta (23-6) hosts No. 13 Sierra (19-11), and No. 2 Santa Rosa (27-2) hosts No. 7 Laney (23-5) with winners all moving on to the CCCAA State Championships set for March 9-12 at West Hills College Lemoore in Lemoore.

Saturday will mark the first meeting of the season between CCSF and COS. But the two squads are no strangers when it comes to the postseason. In last year's regional final, it was No. 6-seeded Sequoias that came away with the 88-73 upset of No. 3 CCSF in San Francisco. With a majority of last season's roster returning, the Rams will have revenge heavily on their minds.

San Francisco is in search of its first-ever state championship and looks to return to the state tournament for the first time since 2017. The Rams were state championship runner up in 2011 and have reached the state tournament Final Four in 2010, 2011, 2016, and 2017.