The Gunn Boys’ Basketball squad is inching closer to a historic first ever De Anza League title as they used a fast start to defeat Fremont 62-49 at Fremont on Friday night.

Gunn is now 19-5 overall and 8-1 in league play with a two game lead over its nearest competitor.

However the road to a title will be severely tested with home games against Los Altos and Palo Alto next week. Both teams are behind Gunn in the standings and have their own hopes for a league title.

On Friday night Gunn played arguably its best quarter of the season as they used a blazing fast start to go up front 25-8 after one quarter.

Keying the start was Kyle Perriocne, who scored 17 of his game high 31 points in the opening stanza.

“I wanted to go inside and in the first quarter I was able to,” said Perricone. “I haven’t been shooting well lately and it was good to get back on target in this game.”

One area where Perricone really improved was on the foul line. After having numerous games where he shot 50% or less, Perricone was 10 for 12 in this game.

Trailing by 17 after one, the undersized Firebirds had only one option, go smaller. Fremont deployed a lineup where they only had one player bigger than any Titan on the floor and at times it worked as Fremont determinedly stayed in the game. A late second quarter rally cut the 17 point lead to 12 (35-23) at half.

In the second half Gunn started out strong and built up a 19 point lead midway through the quarter and had a 51-33 lead heading into the fourth.

However, Gunn had problems finishing Fremont off as the Titans went cold in the fourth. Gunn could only muster two free throws in the first five minutes as the Firebirds cut the lead to 53-44. An Avery Reiss free throw extended the lead to 10 and then Gunn played lock down defense that prevented Fremont from getting a good look on the next possession and with 1:40 remaining Perricone drove in for the first Titan basket of the quarter for a 56-44 lead to seal the game away.

Besides Perricone’s points, Gus Brennan had 12, Reiss and Stephan Castro had seven apiece, Max Minowitz and Bharat Reddy each added two and Jonathan Rea scored one.

Next up for Gunn will be a home game against Los Altos on Tuesday at 7:00 PM.