The St. Francis Sharks will face arguably their toughest test of the season on Friday night.
Head coach Ed Kelly said he believes his team is ready.
Junior forward Chase Watkins scored a career-high 29 points to lead the top-seeded Sharks past No. 5 Pinewood, 67-51, into their first Central Coast Section championship game since 2012.
St. Francis (25-2) — the undefeated and outright Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League champion — will face the two-time defending Division V champ, No. 2 Priory, on Friday night at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont at 7:45 p.m.
It will be a meeting between two of the top six D-V teams in the state, according to maxpreps.com. The Sharks, who have won their last 18 games, are ranked No. 3 in California by the website and the Panthers (21-5) are No. 6.
“I think that we’re confident that we can go up there and win but we’ll have to go up there and play well to do so,” Kelly said. “It’ll be a good game. I know our guys will be looking forward to it.”
St. Francis will be looking for its first CCS title since 2010, which is also the program’s lone section championship.
Priory beat No. 3 Stevenson, 65-59, on Wednesday to advance.
