Scotts Valley’s girls’ basketball team continues to steamroll through the competition following a 58-40 victory over Aptos in Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League action Tuesday night.
Senior Claire Skinner had a team-best 15 points for the Falcons, who now improved to 6-0 in league play this season.
Teammates sophomore Hanna Shehorn and junior Sammy Rebbert each added 14 points, while junior Amaya Guerra finished with five.
A good chunk of the roster is still recovering from certain illnesses, yet the Falcons continued to push through adversity.
“Our team definitely wasn’t 100% feeling good,” Skinner said. “It just shows that we are really determined to keep winning. I think we have a really strong team this year. We pulled ahead with the lead and held them on defense.”
Scotts Valley head coach Stu Hurvitz thought they played pretty well rounded, and Skinner had another great performance on the court.
“[Skinner’s] getting better and better as the season goes on,” he said.
Scotts Valley is the lone team in the SCCAL to remain undefeated. Skinner said they want to keep the streak alive and see where they go from there.
“It definitely adds to the nerves, but we’re able to push through, work hard and get the wins,” she said.
Abby Sherwood had a game-best 19 points, Emi Gansauer-Pilcher added nine and Berkeley Ashby finished with eight points for Aptos, which dropped to 3-3 in the league standings.
“They have good shooters. So, when they keep hitting threes, it’s definitely hard to keep up with,” Skinner said. “But we just need to keep on working on our defense and guarding those outside shots.”
Skinner scored nine points in the first half, while Scotts Valley’s defense gave up just 13 points.
However, that all changed in the second half when the Falcons gave up 27 points, allowing the Mariners to stay within reach. Sherwood hit a 3-pointer that cut the deficit at 35-25 late in the third quarter.
Hurvitz called a time out to regroup and it worked. The Falcons took a 44-28 lead and never looked back.
“Every time they made a little run we had an answer,” Hurvitz said.
Hurvitz said they almost had another let down against Soquel on Jan. 25, yet the Falcons managed to walk away with a 56-32 victory.
That same week, Scotts Valley was coming off a huge 46-38 win against defending league champion Santa Cruz on Jan. 21. Hurvitz said the players really proved themselves that night.
“They can taste it,” Hurvitz said about them winning the league crown. “As long as we don’t get ahead of ourselves, we win Tuesday’s game, we win the league.”
Scotts Valley hosts Santa Cruz on Feb. 4 at 5:30pm.
Skinner said the win over Santa Cruz gave them a confidence boost that they can beat any team in the SCCAL.
“I think we have a lot of talent on the team,” Skinner said. “Every player contributes. When you look at the scores, it’s all well-rounded. It’s not just one person.”
Hurvitz said their focus from the beginning of the season was to play better defense, hold opponents to less points. On offense, they wanted to be more aggressive to the basket, make the defense guard them.
“We got a good group, they’re smart players and they’ve been playing together for a while. It’s really showing,” Hurvitz said.
Scotts Valley (16-2, 6-0) played at Harbor (1-14, 0-6) on Thursday at 5:30pm. Aptos (11-9, 3-3) hosts San Lorenzo Valley (9-10, 1-5) on Friday at 5:30pm.
“Even with the easier teams, we just give them full competition and give them our intensity,” Skinner said. “Treat every game like we’re going to play Santa Cruz, just come out there ready to win.”
