Sierra has one more stop to make in its Tour de Sac-Joaquin.

The fifth-seeded Chieftans from Tollhouse held off No. 3 Ripon Christian 47-41 in the California Interscholastic Federation Division V Northern Regional final Tuesday and will head up to Sacramento on Friday to face SoCal champ Lynwood in a state title game at Golden 1 Center.

“That’s a very good team, and I don’t know what their weaknesses are,” Ripon Christian coach Mark Hofman said. “They rebound, they stopped our transition, they scored enough to win. Our defense was good enough to win tonight, but we just couldn’t generate enough offense against them.”

Logan Kilbert led Sierra (31-5) with 15 points despite fouling out midway through the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the Knights’ top player, Eli Terpsma, was limited to 10 points and seven rebounds.

Sierra and its supporters traveled about 125 miles from its Sierra Nevada community in Fresno County, and it could have been a much farther trip had Ripon Christian (26-8) lost its NorCal semifinal to No. 2 University Prep in Redding last Saturday.

The Chieftans, who finished as the Central Section Division III runner-up, got acquainted with other Sac-Joaquin Section schools on the way to the final, defeating No. 4 Fortune Early College of Sacramento and top-seeded Venture Academy in Stockton.

They’ll now take on a talented Lynwood (26-11) squad that is led by one of the top freshmen in the country in Jason Crowe Jr., who averages about 36 points per game and exploded for 40 in an 87-65 blowout of Pacifica Christian/Santa Monica in CIF Southern Regional final. The Division V state championship starts at noon Friday.

 “We were watching the game after last Saturday and we saw University Prep lose to these guys,” Sierra coach Ryan Watt said. “We thought, wow not only is that great for our team to not have to drive up another two hours, but our fans can also show up.

“They were amazing for the Venture game, they were loud and they were huge tonight. I’m thankful for the great support from our community and our school.”

His team survived a physical NorCal tussle in which its best player, Kilbert, sat most of the second half because of foul trouble. The 6-foot-4 junior guard ultimately fouled out with 3:36 remaining and the Chieftans clinging to 40-34 lead. He picked up his fourth foul, a moving screen, with 2:35 left in the third quarter.

“We’ve had other injuries or foul trouble before, and we always say, ‘Next man up,’” Watt said. “When Logan fouls out, we’re all looking at each other and they said, ‘We got this.’”

Watt gave a nod to his 5-9 senior point guard Nathan Kempen, who knocked down three 3-pointers in the second quarter and made four of four free throws to put the game away in crunch time. He finished with 13 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Watt also acknowledged the play of 6-2 junior Luke Brown, who had three points and seven rebounds but was mainly tasked with defending Terpsma.

“That was a huge scouting deal for us,” Watt said. “After watching the four or five games that we scouted, we wanted to take away what he loves to do. We just tried to make it hard. We said he was going to make some shots, but we just wanted to continue to make it hard for him throughout the game.

“We made some tweaks after the first quarter, but Luke Brown, there is not a kid that’s going to work harder on our team than him. We gave him that assignment, and we knew we had to shut down No. 4 (Luke Crivello) too because he’s a good shooter.”

Crivello was held to three points. Jace Beidleman contributed nine points, 10 rebounds and six blocks for RC, wrapping up a productive NorCal tournament for the 6-7 junior center.

Unlike most opponents for Ripon Christian, Sierra had the all-around length and discipline to make things difficult for the Knights’ usually-efficient attack.

Ben Kliewer held his own in the paint for the Chieftans, chipping in eight points, nine rebounds and two blocks.

“They did a great job,” Terpsma said. “Great game plan, great execution.”

Ripon Christian could never get untracked offensively, and its 11-10 lead after the first quarter was its last. Sierra opened the second quarter on a 9-2 run, getting two 3s from Kempen and one from Kilbert. The Knights had to scrap just to keep up the rest of the way, though they squandered chances in the fourth quarter — including a missed dunk and a missed uncontested layup in transition — that may have helped turned the tide.

“We did have our opportunities,” Hofman said. “In close games, that makes a big difference.”

Ripon Christian came up short of a fifth NorCal championship in program history. The Knights defeated Fortune Early College two weeks ago for the SJS Division V banner, their 12th overall.

“We accomplished a lot,” Hofman said. “Of course they’re disappointed, because that’s how they are. They have very high standards for themselves, but I told them you gotta hold your head high and be proud of what you did this year.”

After a rough start to the season, in which much of their core players arrived late from football, they cruised to another Trans-Valley League title and went on an 18-game winning streak to get to this point.

 “It’s been a ride,” Terpsma said. “These are my brothers, man. And it’s never going to change. We never gave up.”