Aptos senior Nick Tovani felt deep down it was his time to shine prior to heading into overtime in Thursday night’s game against rival Santa Cruz.
The standout guard scored eight of his 19 points in the additional four-minute period to help lift the Mariners over the Cardinals for a 50-46 win in Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League action.
“A big team to get a win against,” Tovani said. “It’s always a super fun game to play in, and a big crowd. High stakes, league is kind of on the line with them. So it’s always fun to play them, always a good game.”
With the win, Aptos remains undefeated with a 4-0 record in league play, and currently sits atop of the SCCAL standings. Both teams meet again in Santa Cruz on Feb. 4 at 7:30pm.
Aptos head coach Brian Bowyer said picking up the win was just one step closer to their goal, which is to capture the league crown.
“There’s a lot of good teams in league that if we shoot the ball like we did tonight, and those other teams get hot, things could go quick the other direction,” he said. “We just have to keep on playing. But we’re feeling nice about where we are right now.”
Tovani said they didn’t put much stress going into Thursday’s contest, and knew all they had to do was play their game in order to walk off the court victorious.
“We definitely get up energy wise. We didn’t have anything too crazy to do,” he said.
The first emphasis was defense. It began with a pair of blocks from senior Owen Warmerdam, a 6-foot-8 center who played a huge presence down low the entire evening.
“[Warmerdam] makes everything work, he makes our press work,” Tovani said. “Everything kind of happens because of him.”
Tovani also praised his teammate senior Isaiah Ackerman, who recorded a double-double with 13 points and 17 rebounds.
“Isaiah draws a lot of double teams and it helps other guys get open shots. A lot of the stuff you don’t really see on the stat sheet that everybody else is doing,” Tovani said.
The Mariners built a 20-11 lead at the end of the first quarter and were on track to a smooth night. Of course, that’s never the case when these two teams get together.
Bowyer said Thursday night’s game reminded him of just about every meeting between the two rivals.
“It’s an ugly game, it’s a fight,” he said. “Every possession is difficult for both teams, and that’s kind of what we were expecting. We jumped out to a nice early lead, and it was too easy for us early. I knew that that wasn’t going to last.”
The Cardinals took flight in the second stanza, holding the Mariners to just four points. Two of those points came from the charity stripe by sophomore guard Caden Bogle.
Santa Cruz sophomore LJ Legen also drained a big 3-pointer with less than two minutes remaining in the first half, cutting the deficit at just 24-22 going into halftime.
Bowyer said Santa Cruz adjusted from playing man defense to a zone, which threw the Mariners’ shots off just a bit.
“But our defense, we just battled and battled and battled, and we were able to pull it out in the end,” Bowyer said.
The second half was a mirror image of the first two quarters. Both teams continued to miss shots on wide open looks, and there were turnovers galore.
Tovani came through with a pair of momentum-changing steals along with a couple of buckets, keeping the Mariners afloat in the third quarter. Fellow teammate Demian Matlow also had a clutch 3-pointer that gave Aptos a 39-32 lead in the fourth.
Santa Cruz stormed right back, though. DeMarco Hunter hit one of two free throw attempts that pulled them to within two points at 41-39.
Moments later, the Cardinals defense surrounded Aptos senior Ryan Solorio, forcing him to mishandle the ball. Guerande Houssin picked it up for the steal, and drove to the hoop for the layup.
Houssin missed the shot but Hunter was there for the rebound and monstrous dunk, forcing the game to go into overtime tied at 41-all.
Tovani said at that point it was just muscle memory, especially in high stakes games such as Thursday. His first basket was a jump shot that banked in, followed by a pair of free throws. Tovani then hit a 3-pointer from the left corner and wrapped up the game with one final made free throw.
“You just get going and the game comes to you, you don’t really have to play the game.
Bowyer said Tovani has been playing lights-out for quite some time, but this season he’s taken it to another level. The longtime Aptos coach added that Tovani, like everybody else, had great shots that weren’t falling throughout Thursday night’s game.
“I was just waiting for somebody to catch fire, and [Tovani] did at the right time,” Bowyer said. “He hit a big 3[-pointer], he got to the basket, he got the steal, he made some free throws. He just did what we needed him to do.”
But none of it surprised Bowyer, who said Tovani has been one of their two go-to guys this season.
“I was so happy that he was able to do that in this environment,” Bowyer said. “It was just great for him.”
Next up, Aptos (14-4, 4-0) hosts Harbor on Saturday at 1:30pm.
