SAN JOSE >> Junior forward DeMarco Hunter has paced Santa Cruz High’s basketball team by making a living in the paint, often flying above the rim for crowd pleasing dunks.

So nearly every jaw dropped when Hunter buried a clutch 3-pointer from the top of the arc against rival Aptos with 26.3 seconds left in the Central Coast Section Division III championship at Mission College on Saturday.

Hunter not only vanquished a decade of postseason demons for Cardinals’ fans with his 3, he helped the No. 2 seed Cardinals beat the No. 1 Mariners for the first time this season, 47-44.

“That felt great,” said Hunter, of his game-winning basket. “That’s at the top of my list for sure. … Winning this really means a lot, too. Man, we’ve been fighting for this forever. We’ve made it here multiple times and we always come up short, so this one really felt good to get.”

Following the script of the teams’ previous three meetings — all won by Aptos and decided by a total of 10 points — the teams produced another thriller that went down to the wire, proving that if you wanted to measure the talent gap between the squads, you couldn’t fit a string of dental floss between them.

The Mariners (24-5 overall) beat the Cardinals (18-11) twice in Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League play and, again, in the SCCAL Tournament championship. This time, it was the Cardinals flashing their pearly whites at the final buzzer.

As expected, it was a tough loss for the Mariners to swallow, so much so that Mariners coach Brian Bowyer broke down in the locker room along with his players. A couple hundred feet away, Lawan Milhouse did the same in the Cardinals’ locker room, which is where his celebrating players doused him with a bucket of ice water.

“I already cried and I’m gonna cry again,” Milhouse said. “It has been 10 years, and we’ve been here six other times. This one’s pretty special though.”

The Cardinals had made five finals and lost each of them since last hoisting the winner’s plaque in 2015. It’s Santa Cruz’s third CCS title in the sport, two of which have come under Milhouse’s guidance. The other was won under legendary coach Pete Newell Jr. in 2005.

Despite qualifying for the CCS final a year ago, there were no indications that the Cardinals, who went on to win the CIF D-III NorCal Regional title, would return to glory this season. Star forward Kirby Seals transferred to Archbishop Riordan over the summer, which sent shockwaves throughout the county, and two other starters, Ben Dotten and Demeke Smith, graduated.

Santa Cruz returned Hunter, considered the best player in the county along with Aptos’ Isaiah Ackerman, and guard Mosiah Cumberbatch, and welcomed in three transfers, guards L.J. Legan and Keyondre Randolph, and forward Guerande Houssin, but it entered league play with a 5-8 record.

Houssin gained eligibility once league began and the Cardinals slowly took steps forward. But they couldn’t get past Aptos. Not once, not twice, not three times.

“For us, to win the section beating them it’s a lot more sweeter,” Milhouse said. “But it’s a credit to these young men I have in the locker room and it’s a credit to the these coaches. We tell everybody, ‘It’s not easy playing here. Just because guys graduate and guys leave, it’s still hard.’ It’s competitive. We want to make it a competitive program. That’s what its for, it makes basketball better. For all the good, the bad, and the ugly that these guys have been through this year, to still bond together and pull this game off, it’s special.”

The Mariners, despite returning starters Ackerman and Ryan Solorio, graduated several seniors, which allowed the next wave of seniors, including guard Demian Matlow, wing Nick Tovani and center Owen Warmerdam, to secure starting roles.

The Mariners have been on a tear all season, but looming in the back of their minds were a couple of uncomfortable thoughts as they attempted to win the program’s first section title since 1986, should they meet Santa Cruz in the final: How could they defy the odds and beat a talented team four straight times, and how would they challenge Hunter, a talented shot blocker, in the paint?

“We talked about that at one of the timeouts we called,” Bowyer said. “DeMarco’s tough around the rim, so we kinda started going away from attacking and started shooting a lot of threes. That’s fine and dandy if you’re knocking ’em down, but we weren’t, so we called a timeout. After that timeout we were attacking more, we were getting to the free-throw line and, you know, just a little too little, too late.”

Legan and Hunter paced the Cardinals early, while Ackerman and Solorio led the Mariners. The teams were tied three times in the first quarter, which ended deadlocked at 11-all.

Ackerman opened in the second quarter with a dunk, but Santa Cruz closed the quarter with a 12-4 run, thanks to a pair of 3s from Legan and a dunk from Hunter.

Ackerman opened scoring in the third quarter with a field goal, but the Mariners refused to challenge Hunter in the paint and opted for fadeaway shots and kick-out passes after they penetrated.

Kaden Mirtz, Hunter, and Legan made field goals to help the Cardinals push their lead to 11 points, 32-21, in the stanza.

After receiving baskets from Hunter and Houssin in the fourth, good for a 38-28 lead, the Mariners slowly their regained confidence. It also helped that officials rung up Houssin for a technical foul and Hunter for a couple of fouls.

Aptos made seven free throws over the final 5:59 and received field goals from Warmerdam, Solorio, and a pair of layups from Tovani, including a Euro step bucket that knotted the score at 44-all and left fans screaming for a travel.

Hunter, who scored the Cardinals’ final nine points, had something left in his arsenal: his first 3 of the game for the go-ahead basket.

Aptos attempted a 3 in the waning seconds and the teams were battling for the loose ball when the final buzzer sounded.

“Santa Cruz won the biggest one out of all four of ’em,” Bowyer said. “Every game has been like this. I think we had momentum there at the end. It’s just, he made a great shot. It was a great offensive possession and it was a great defensive possession for us. A great player made a great shot. I felt like we finally started finding our offense, finally started shooting the ball with confidence. We were going in the right direction there; we just ran out of time.”

Hunter, who has 24 double-doubles in 29 games, finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Legan finished with three 3s and 13 points, and Houssin chipped in with six points.

“This is why I came here,” Legan said. “I came to win. And they said get hot right from the beginning. We needed me and DeMarco right away. We need to get going, and that’s what I did.”

Ackerman had 20 points, six rebounds, and three blocks to pace the Mariners. Tovani finished with nine points, all of which came in the second half, and Solorio scored seven points.

“I told ’em how proud I was of them: 24-5, that’s a hell of a season, it’s not over,” Bowyer said.

Both teams advance to the CIF NorCal Regional playoffs. Seedings take place Sunday and the first round begins Tuesday evening.