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Sports

BOYS BASKETBALL: Soquel Boys Hoops Season Comes to an End

Regular Season champs bounce Knights in SCCAL tourney semifinal bout.

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 Ty Demeo had 10 in the convincing Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League semifinal win for the Cardinals. Soquel big man Alex Shearer scored a team-high 13 points in a losing effort. Sophomore guard Tucker Wiget dropped in eight points for the Knights .

The Turning Point: Santa Cruz led by three at the half and by six after three quarters of action. They finally shook away the 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 jumper to give Santa Cruz its biggest lead of the night, one that they would never relinquish..

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The Quote: "Going into halftime we were happy." —Soquel head coach Stu Walters said about his teams effort in the first half against No. 1 seeded Santa Cruz High. “They have talent up-and-down the lineup. Their very athletic and they hammered us on the boards tonight. The second chance opportunities killed us.”

Soquel started a very young lineup on Thursday night. It was also the last game in a Soquel uniform for four seniors:Iggy Lamacchia, Christian Bauerle, Julio Perez and Jonathon Fulcher.

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“I love our senior class,” Walters said. “I told them after the game I wish I could coach this group for the next 50 years. They played hard for me every night.”

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. Soquel will have to wait until summer ball to get back on the hardwood.

Bottom Line: For a half, everything was going according to plan for the upset-minded Knights. In the second stanza, the superior depth and athleticism of the top-seeded Cardinals wore down the Knights.

........................................................................................................................... 

 Soquel Scoring

Wiget-8

Shearer-13

Walters-2

McConnell-2

#23-3

Akrop-4

Lamacchia-6

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