GIRLS BASKETBALL: Soquel Outlasts Santa Cruz in Semis

Soquel 68, Santa Cruz 61

The Star: Soquel junior guard Ragine Graves scored 16 of her team-high 20 points in the second half, willing her team into the winners circle Thursday evening at Scotts Valley High. Graves scored two buckets late in the first half, but with her team only ahead by one at the break, the shifty guard ramped up her play on the offensive end in a big way during the final two quarters of play.

The Turning Point: Soquel used its superior size to get things going early on in the game, but the pesky Santa Cruz bunch wouldn’t go away. Only ahead by one going into the fourth quarter, back-to-back hard-nosed drives to the hoop by Ragine Graves and Madison Rocha—who scored a tough bucket and was fouled--ignited the Knights faithful in attendance and put Soquel ahead by seven points late in the fourth quarter. The five-point swing made the score 60-53 with 3:04 remaining in the contest.

The Quote: "I felt like I hadn’t done much in the first half." —Soquel guard Ragine Graves said about her slow start on Thursday night. “My mindset changed. I started thinking I need to get more aggressive. I was not going to lose this game. We all wanted to be playing on Saturday.”

What's Next? Soquel will square off against the Cinderella of the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League tournament, St. Francis High-Watsonville. The girls basketball title game will tip-off at 3 pm on Saturday. The game will be played at Aptos High.

Bottom Line: It was a hard fought victory—the third over Santa Cruz this season for Soquel—to put the No. 2 seed into Saturday’s tournament finale. Sophomore guard Madision Rocha scored 15 points, while Graves added 20 of her own. The duo attacked the rim at will in the second half, putting lots of pressure on the undersized Santa Cruz front line. Undefeated No. 1 seed Scotts Valley fell to St. Francis in the nightcap, pushing Soquel into the role of favorite going into championship Saturday.

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Soquel Scoring

Rocha-15

Bell-7

Woodward-15

Graves-20

Stewart-7

Dominguez-2

Clark-2