Sports
BOYS BASKETBALL: Third Time Not the Charm for Harbor
Mariners come out red-hot;bounce Pirates in semis of SCCAL tournament.
Aptos 54, Harbor 37
The Stars: Aptos senior guard Nick Grieves and junior center Jake Harrell each scored 19 points in the convincing Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League tournament semifinal win Thursday afternoon at Scotts Valley High. Grieves was a volume shooter last Friday night in a loss at Harbor, but things played out in a much different fashion less than a week later. Greives, Conlin Henderson and Charlie Hinga all were hot from behind the arc and Harrell handled all the dirty work inside. The big man finished the game with a double-double (points, rebounds).
Harbor (19-7, 10-4 SCCAL) senior Colin Gruber missed his first four shots, but still displayed his usual offensive brilliance in a losing effort. Gruber scored a game-high 21 points—14 came in the second half—but the rest of the Pirates bunch couldn’t get anything going from the opening tap. Matt Armstrong scored 10 points, including back-to-back triples in the second half. Jon Bogaard was held to only two points.
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The Turning Point: While most of the tournaments spectators were still arriving to the gym, Aptos (21-4, 11-3) exploded out of the gates in the first quarter. The Mariners outscored their opponent 18-6 in the opening eight minutes of play. Harbor was playing catch up the rest of the way, unable to close the gap. The balanced Aptos team moved the ball efficiently early, getting quality shots all over the court.
The Quote: "They hit shots and we didn’t." —Harbor High head coach Mike Gruber said. “It’s hard to beat a good team three times. I’m not sure if it was the 3:30 start time or what, but we didn’t come out with very much energy in the first four minutes of the game. We didn’t look ready to play.”
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What's Next? Harbor will await the unveiling of the Central Coast Section playoff brackets on Sunday. The Pirates will begin CCS playoff action next week.
Bottom Line: It was a subpar showing from a Harbor team that won its 19th game of the season on Tuesday night against Scotts Valley. The early start time didn’t do the host Pirates any favors. If Harbor wants to extend its season any further than round one, its defensive energy and execution will need to get cranked up a notch.
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Harbor Scoring
Coss-4
Gruber-21
Bogaard-2
Armstrong-10
