Sports
GIRLS BASKETBALL: Scotts Valley Cruises Past Carmel in CCS Quarters
Balanced Falcons advance to semis in Division IV bracket; square off against Mercy Tuesday night.
Scotts Valley 65, Carmel 37
The Scotts Valley High girls basketball team was simply tired of waiting.
After a nine day layoff in between games, Scotts Valley shook off some rust and then rolled past Carmel High 65-37 in a Central Coast Section Division IV Girls Basketball Playoff game Saturday afternoon at Notre Dame-Belmont.
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Natalia Ebrahimian scored a team-high 16 points. Senior Liz Munger had 12 points.
It was the first game since the Falcons were upset in the semifinals on the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League tournament by St. Francis-CCC Watsonville.
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“It was our second game in the last 18 days,” Scotts Valley head coach Jim Hart said. “Once the girls got comfortable out on the court, things started clicking again.”
Scotts Valley (21-5) scored 24 points in the second quarter, breaking the game wide open going into the half.
Balanced was the name of the game on Saturday. Each player that hit the floor contributed in a major way for the Falcons.
Sophomore guard Nicole Whitney, who put together a nice string of minutes late in the game against St. Francis, came off the bench to score 14 points against Carmel.
Freshman center Nadine Hart dropped in seven points to go along with her team-high 14 rebounds.
“Our kids just couldn’t wait to get out there,” Coach Hart said. “The St. Francis loss stung a little. It was nice to play some basketball again and get a win.”
Angela Silver (6 points), Tori McBride (5 points) and Autumn Guidace-Murphy (5 points) all came through with solid showings in their first career CCS playoff games.
The three freshmen and the rest of the Falcons bunch will play again Tuesday night against No. 5 seed Mercy-San Francisco in the semis.
Mercy edged No. 4 Menlo 56-55 in the final quarterfinal game of the day on Saturday.
“They (Mercy) beat us in the semis last year and the quarters the year before in CCS,” Hart said. “They lost some quality senior players and we’ve improved. I like the matchup for us.”
If Scotts Valley advances past Mercy, they will play the winner of the Soquel-ND-Belmont game on Friday afternoon in the CCS D-IV title game held at Santa Clara University.