BOYS BASKETBALL: Santa Cruz Advances to the SCCAL Tourney Finals

Santa Cruz 59, Soquel 38

The Stars: Santa Cruz senior guard Keith Williams led the way with 19 points. The dangerous wing had two points at the half before exploding for 17 points in the second half. Starting point guard Zen Maki scored 14 points and junior center Ti Demeo had 10 in the convincing Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League semifinal win for the Cardinals.

The Turning Point: Santa Cruz led by three at the half and by six after three quarters of action. They finally shook away the upset-minded Knights early in the final quarter of play, started off by a breakout pass from point man Zen Maki to Ty Demeo. After the Demeo score, the big man hustled back to block a Soquel drive attempt. The swat keyed another fast break opportunity. This time it was Keith Williams who would finish off the break. The guard knocked down a deep pull-up jumpe to give Santa Cruz its biggest lead of the night, one that they would never relinquish.

The Quotes: "It really hit us at halftime that if we lose this game that we’re out of this tournament." — Santa Cruz senior Keith Williams said about the increased urgency his team played with during the second half. “It was a team effort tonight. Once a couple shots started falling, we were a different team.”

Williams and the Cardinals will have to deal with another formidable challenge on Saturday night against Aptos. The two schools split their two meetings in the regular season.

“We need to play with the confidence we played with in the second half tonight against Aptos,” Williams said. “We continue to move our feet well and know where (Nick)Grieves is at all times. Foul trouble also hurt us before against them (Aptos).”

What's Next? Santa Cruz will battle it out with Aptos High Saturday night for the SCCAL boys basketball tournament championship. Tip-off is set for 7 pm at Aptos High.

 Bottom Line: Santa Cruz outscored Soquel 37-19 in the second half, showing off the poise and the closing ability of a champion. With the regular season title already in tow, the next carrot up for grabs is a league tournament title. Eight different Cardinals scored on Thursday night. The uber-deep top seed will look to use the depth to its advantage against a very strong Aptos starting five. Santa Cruz defeated Aptos 68-59 in the schools last meeting on Feb. 2 in Santa Cruz.

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 Santa Cruz Scoring

Conroy-5

Demeo-10

Maki-14

Bonner-4

Schmidt-3

Williams-19

Hansen-2

Saint John-2