Cardinals Fly Past Knights for League Title

The Santa Cruz men’s basketball team had a lot to play for on Friday night and it showed. Needing a win to clinch the league title and avenge an earlier loss against Soquel, the Cardinals came out with great intensity in a high-octane performance in front of their home crowd. 

 And quite a crowd it was. 

 “We haven’t had a crowd like this since sophomore year for homecoming,” said senior Jamie Saint John, who scored 11 points along with 2 rebounds and 2 assists. 

 The Cardinals jumped out quickly in a game that came close to getting out of hand as they took an 18-5 lead into the second quarter, which featured more of the same. Santa Cruz solidly out-rebounded Soquel behind five apiece from Thatcher Sammet and Clayton Conroy.

 Soquel attempted several three-pointers to get back in the game but had a hard time getting shots to fall, as well as difficulty in dealing with the aggressive press defense of the Cardinals.

 Midway through the second, the Cardinals had extended their lead beyond 20 points, where it stayed for much of the night behind raucous cheering from a capacity crowd.

 “We just wanted to get back at them,” said Saint John, referring to the Cardinals defeat at the hands of Soquel in the finals of the Dad’s Club Tournament.

 “It was kind of heartbreaking to lose it to Soquel. Ever since then, we’ve had this fire in us.”

 Conroy, who totaled 12 rebounds and nine points for the Cardinals, said the game marked the second time this season they were able to come out with such intensity and sustain it for the entire game.

 “Everyone was pumped. We had a huge crowd. It was a fun game.” 

 Santa Cruz now enters the playoff tournament as league champion and number one seed rather than having to share the title with Soquel and Aptos.

 The three teams traded the top spot in the league throughout the season and it’s hard to envision a playoff scenario that won’t involve a clash between two of the three.