The Santa Cruz Cardinals scored the most points they've had all season to find success on Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Aptos 68-35 at home. Santa Cruz has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won nine games by 21 points or more this season.
It was another big night for Tiera Oconnor, who scored 24 points along with eight rebounds and five assists. As a matter of fact, that's the most points she has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Natalia Espinosa, who scored 12 points along with six rebounds.
Aptos lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Guin Lines, who scored seven points along with two blocks. The team also got some help courtesy of Gabby Wickham, who scored ten points along with two steals.
The win was the fifth in a row for Santa Cruz, bringing their record for this year to 13-5. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 55.8 points per game. As for Aptos, their loss ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 10-6.
Santa Cruz will head out on the road to square off against San Lorenzo Valley at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. San Lorenzo Valley will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps California Rankings (they are ranked 938th, while Santa Cruz is ranked 277th). As for Aptos, they will square off against Menlo School at 2:30 p.m. on Monday. Hopefully Menlo School focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up six on Friday.
