In their first Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League meetup in the 2014-15 season, the San Lorenzo Valley High School varsity boys defeated the rival Falcons on the road in Scotts Valley Tuesday night.
Led by a 16-point night by junior guard Derek McCuiston, the Cougars took advantage of Falcon turnovers in what turned into a battle of free throws.
“Too many turnovers and missing a lot of free throws in crucial moments,” said Falcon Head Coach Charles Burks. “The kids played hard though — SLV played a good game and took advantage of our mistakes.”
Despite that, the Falcons hung close to the Cougars for the entire length of play, never trailing by much more than 10 points.
Much of the Falcon offense came from the trio of Joseph Espinola, Tanner Spence, and Alec Vucinich.
For the Cougars, senior point guard Shaden Pias had a strong night, along with junior forward Sebastian Vroman-Nell.
Scotts Valley, which has gotten off to a bit of a rocky start in SCCAL play — with losses to Santa Cruz, Aptos, and now SLV — will take on the Soquel Knights on Friday and St. Francis on Monday, Jan. 19.
“They’ve all been playing pretty good but we can do better,” Burks said. “They keep believing in themselves and play hard, they’ll get better.”
Up next for the Cougars is Aptos on Friday.
