SCOTTS VALLEY — Round three is set.
The St. Francis High Sharks would not be denied.
Senior forwards Chase Watkins and Jason Gallo combined to score 45 points, and the Sharks’ defense held Aptos High to its lowest scoring total in nearly a month to advance to the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League tournament championship with a 64-47 win on Thursday night.
The No. 2-seeded Sharks will meet top-seeded Santa Cruz High on Saturday at Aptos. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
It will be the third time the two teams have met this season. St. Francis (19-4) won the first game in Watsonville, but Santa Cruz (21-4) won the last one just a week ago at home to clinch the SCCAL regular season title.
Saturday’s tilt will also be the third straight time the two have met in the tournament final. St. Francis won last year, avenging a heartbreaking loss from the year before on a controversial buzzer beater.
There’s more than enough history between the two.
“We’re just looking for a great game no matter what happens,” said Gallo, who had 22 points. “It should be fun.”
Gallo added 13 rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals to his line while helping St. Francis turn Thursday into a blowout in the third quarter.
The Sharks outscored No. 3 seed Aptos (17-9) 23-9 in the frame by holding them to just two field goals to head into the final stanza with a 17-point advantage.
They cruised through the fourth, pushing the lead to 22 on a pair of late free throws from Watkins.
“I thought we really took the life out of them in the third quarter, and defensively put the clamps on them,” said St. Francis head coach Ed Kelly. “That was a really solid eight minutes for us.”
Watkins also had seven rebounds, three steals and two assists. Junior guard Andrew Seymour added nine points and five rebounds, and junior point guard E.J. Kelly chipped in seven points and four assists.
The Sharks also got big minutes from junior guard Joseph Ramirez, who did not score but forced Aptos into a trio of turnovers, and found Seymour for a wide-open corner 3 late in the third to continue St. Francis’ onslaught.
“We decided that we wanted to win, and we wanted to go to the championship,” Gallo said.
Senior guard Rashaun Wooden paced Aptos with 16 points, and senior forward Blake Welle added 13.
Wooden’s scoop layup during the closing seconds of the first half brought the Mariners within three, but St. Francis exploded out of the break with a 7-0 run and continued to pile on the points soon after.
“They played good help defense,” said Wooden, who swished a trio of 3-pointers in the second half. “It was really hard to get to the hole.”
Aptos will have the weekend off before the start of next week’s Central Coast Section playoffs.
The Mariners will find out who and where they will play at Sunday’s seeding meeting.
“I think we definitely can make a run in CCS if we get it together, and blow this loss off and keep working on the next practice,” Wooden said.
St. Francis will also advance to the CCS playoffs next week with hopes of defending its Division V championship.
But first comes Saturday.
“This is an impressive win, to play a really good team and win like that was a nice sign this time of year,” Kelly said. “Maybe we’re playing well at the right time.”
