APTOS >> Aptos High’s boys basketball team got a little help from everyone, at both ends of the court, and that was enough to carry the No. 3 seed Mariners back into the Central Coast Section semifinals for a second straight season.

Isaiah Ackerman and Lawrence Ingram IV each recorded double-doubles, and the Mariners held off South San Francisco 57-50 in the Division III quarterfinals Tuesday night.

“It feels amazing,” Ackerman said.

Aptos (19-8), co-champions of the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League each of the past two seasons, hosts No. 2 Burlingame (20-4) in a playoff rematch on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Mariners lost to Burlingame in the 2022 CCS D-III final.

The Panthers, the runner-up in the Peninsula Athletic League’s South Division, opened their CCS title defense with a 54-35 win over No. 7 El Camino on Tuesday.

Trevor Brady, cleared to play earlier in the day after taking a nasty spill in the SCCAL Tournament championship game Feb. 11, staked the Mariners to a 15-6 lead on his second field goal of the opening quarter.

Said Warriors coach Isaiah Igafo: “That was the key, trying to get great shot over good shots. That was our key thing, try and drive hard, try to get the defense to collapse, and then kick it out for our shooters to try and get warm, but it wasn’t working.”

The speedy, undersized Warriors buried 3-pointers on their next three possessions to narrow the gap to 17-15.

“We knew they could shoot it,” Mariners coach Brian Bowyer said. “We knew zero (Steven Fernando) and twenty-four (Nolan Alimorong) were their two guys who could penetrate and shoot, and both of them did. We weren’t overlooking them.”

The Warriors knotted the score twice in the second quarter, 17-all and 19-all, but field goals from Lawrence and Ackerman gave the Mariners a 25-23 advantage at the half.

“It was driving and penetrating,” Ackerman said. “We weren’t making a lot of our three-pointers, but we were able to penetrate, get layups, get putbacks because they weren’t that big. We were able to get rebounds, push in transition and get buckets.”

The teams continued their defensive ways in the third. Aptos, holding the size advantage, was a force on the boards, and received field goals from five different players in the third quarter to push their lead to 37-33. None was more celebrated than Jaxon Becker’s near 3-pointer at the buzzer. Standing feet away from the Mariners’ vocal student section, Becker stretched out his arms as he soaked in the moment after making his clutch shot.

The Mariners made their way to the free-throw line often in the fourth, where they made 11 of 16 attempts. Aptos used an 11-3 run to open the final for some breathing room.

But the Warriors didn’t need much time or space to put a scare in the Mariners. South S.F. tacked on three more 3-pointers in a 2-minute span to pull within four points, 52-48. Ingram made the Mariners’ lone 3-pointer with 41 seconds remaining to push the lead to seven points.

Bowyer told Ingram not to shoot a 3, and Ingram later told his coach that he heard just the opposite before unleashing the pivotal basket.

“I haven’t talked to him, really, about it yet,” Bowyer said. “In the locker room he said, ‘Coach, I thought you said shoot.’ I think he’s lying to me. It was open. And that was our only main three of the night. So, you know, that shows how smart coach is: tell him not to do it and he makes it.”

Ingram and Ackerman sealed the with with a free throw each.

Ackerman finished with 15 points and 10-plus rebounds. He was 9-of-10 shooting from the free-throw line. Brady scored 13 points, and Ingram had 12 points and 10-plus rebounds. Harrison Bloom scored 11 points.

South S.F. (15-11), the third-place finisher in the PAL’s North Division, finished with eight 3-pointers. Senior guard Nolan Alimorong scored 17 points. Steven Fernando, also a senior guard, scored 14 points.

“Our game plan was kinda come in and use our speed against their size,” Igafo said. “But their speed matched, so it was just about adjustments after that.”

Scotts Valley 58, Menlo 53

ATHERTON — Tristan Roure scored 19 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, and the No. 11 Falcons upset the No. 3 Knights in the D-IV quarterfinals. He made three free throws with less than 10 seconds remaining.

The Falcons (15-11), the third-place finisher in the SCCAL, play at No. 2 Half Moon Bay (16-9) in the semifinals on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Cougars, champion of the Peninsula Athletic League’s North Division, beat No. 7 Harker 71-46 in the quarterfinals.

“Going into Menlo, we knew this was going to be a tough game, but these boys stepped up and leaned on each other,” Falcons coach Gabe Gonzales said. “Almost everyone scored in the game; shows how much trust is here.”

Seven Falcons scored. Zach Shilling scored eight points and Evan Anderson scored three.

Scotts Valley turned a 9-8 deficit in the first quarter into a 21-16 lead by halftime. The Falcons entered the fourth quarter up by three, 34-31.

“Our team is competing on every play and trusting one another no matter the time of game or type of game, it amazing watching them grow,” Gonzales said.

St. Francis 62, Eastside 59

WATSONVILLE — Sam Braun and Nash Horton each made two free throws late, and the No. 4 Sharks, the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Cypress Division champion, edged the No. 5 Panthers of East Palo Alto in overtime in their D-V quarterfinal.

St. Francis (18-7) plays at No. 1 Priory (22-3) of Portola Valley in the semifinals on Thursday at 7 p.m. Priory, the West Bay Athletic League champion, routed Pinewood 97-43 in the quarterfinals.

The Sharks led Eastside 10-2 after the first quarter and 33-18 at the half. But the Panthers, the seventh-place finisher in the WBAL, rallied in the second half and tied the score at 53-all by the end of regulation.

St. Francis outscored Eastside 9-6 in overtime.

Braun made five 3-pointers and led the Sharks with 25 points. Joseph Rose made four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points. One of his 3s came in OT. Horton scored 12 points.