The road gets longer and theoretically with more bumps for Mt. Carmel and coach Greg Lanthier’s three-point-shooting snipers.

Lanthier, who won a San Diego Section championship as coach at Vista in 1992-93, takes his Divison III 10th-seeded SunDevils (25-9)  up the Coast Highway 160 miles to play 4 seed Calabasas Viewpoint (20-6).

Mt. Carmel is ranked 18th in the San Diego Section by Max Preps . Viewpoint defeated San Diego’s No. 15, San Dieguito, 64-59, in the first round.

Meanwhile, Scripps Ranch, No. 2 in D-IV and 23-11 on the season, will play host to the Central Section’s Bakersfield Golden Valley (23-8).

The Bishop’s, the only remaining Division II team in the state with a seed as high as No. 13,  moves into the Southern California playoffs semifinals Saturday night.

The Knights (17-7), under first-year coach Paris Johnson, who played at San Diego High and San Diego State and replaced mentor Marlon Wells, now face their stiffest test at No. 1 Corona Santiago (23-9).

Wells, who won more than 500 games at San Diego and The Bishop’s, resigned before the 2021-22 season.  One reason and possibly the most important was that Wells lives in Temecula.

The coach, also active and successful in Club basketball, commuted about 60 miles each way  to the La Jolla campus.

Perhaps Wells was prescient and  knew how high gas prices would become in Southern California.