ATHERTON — Santa Cruz controlled both the middle of the key and the middle two quarters of Friday’s game to claim a 58-48 victory over Sacred Heart Prep that wasn’t as close as the final margin would suggest.
With a 34-13 advantage over the second and third quarter, the Gators (5-4) played 16 minutes of clinical basketball for a win that may play a major role come February when determining the seedings in the CCS Division IV field.
Zavier Hill-Kemp scored 13 of his game-high 17 over those two periods, including seven of the 11 straight points that the Cardinals would score at the onset of the second quarter to take a 23-10 lead. Charlie Selna would score the next five points for Sacred Heart Prep (1-5), but a Robert Bishop and-1 restored the double-digit lead and a steal and layup sophomore Trey Williams sent the Cardinals into the locker room with a 13-point advantage.
It would be more of the same in the third quarter as the guests closed the quarter on a 16-3 run after five points by Yianni Gardner had trimmed the lead to 30-20. Five different Cardinals scored in the stretch, with Hill-Kemp scoring another six, including a three-point play with 1:41 lift in the quarter to bring the lead to 23.
The Gators wouldn’t go quietly, doubling their offensive output in the fourth quarter behind the efforts of Gardner and Brendan Carney, who combined for five 3-pointers as Santa Cruz saw a once-commanding lead trimmed all the way to 10 in the final minutes.
“We’ve still got to learn how to play the fourth quarter,” said Santa Cruz head coach Lawan Millhouse. “It’s been a major issue for us.”
Still, a Santa Cruz team that returns all but one major contributor looks like a serious Division IV contender. Hill-Kemp and Bishop, who had 13 points and 11 rebounds, lead an extremely balanced team, and Jeremiah Elmore, who also scored 13, rounds out the core.
Gardner scored all 16 of his points in the second half and Carney finished 14, including 10 in the fourth quarter. The Gators were without the services of Jai Deshpande (illness), their second-highest scorer so far this season.
