SCOTTS VALLEY >> Scotts Valley High’s girls basketball team, which returns every player from last year’s team, believes it will compete with favorites Santa Cruz and Aptos for the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League title this season.

If the Falcons play like they did in their 58-37 nonleague win over visiting St. Francis on Friday, their beliefs are justified.

“I felt like we played as a full team tonight, better than any game we have this season, last season,” said Brooklyn Williams, a junior guard for the Falcons. “I think it really, really clicked. I think we made a bunch of unselfish plays. We just meshed really well tonight.”

Scotts Valley (7-2 overall) wreaked havoc with its press, and if the youth-laden Sharks (6-3) made it through the gauntlet, they still had to deal with the Falcons’ stifling, man-to-man defense. That didn’t go so well either.

The Sharks — headlined by two of the top underclassmen in Santa Cruz County, sophomore guard Maya Calfee, the reigning Pacific Coast Athletic League Cypress Division MVP, and freshman guard Liliana Whitmeyer — dug themselves an early hole and never fully recovered.

Scotts Valley, despite being without senior post players Claire Skinner and Lilly Watson, suited up eight players and got the most out of each.

Williams scored a game-high 17 points and had four assists and three rebounds. Junior guard Samantha Rebbert had 15 points and four rebounds, and junior forward Amaya Guerra had 14 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists. Senior forward Abigail Shi had six points and seven rebounds.

“For us, it gives us confidence for teams that play aggressive,” Falcons coach Stu Hurvitz said. “We learn from it. We need to get some better help defense in there. All the teams I’ve been trying to play this preseason are, at least, better on paper. Hopefully that helps us get better going into league.”

Even though Scotts Valley created its share of turnovers, they didn’t produce a ton in transition. Instead, they settled comfortably into their half-court offense and zipped the ball around the court with ferocity before settling on jumper after jumper to build a 13-4 lead.

“They play good basketball,” Sharks coach Jesse Yniguez said. “They move the ball well and they play team basketball. I thought their scheme was really good.”

Calfee scored nine of her team-high 16 points in the second quarter as the Sharks narrowed their deficit to three points, 16-13, but the Williams and the Falcons penetrated the Sharks defense and finished at the rim to carry a 24-17 lead into the half.

“They can shoot and they like to shoot,” Hurvitz said. “So they gotta rebound. We’ve been working on drives and kicks. We got a lot of layups in there also.”

St. Francis pulled its five starters for a short stretch early in the third quarter, and Rebbert and Guerra each made a pair of field goals to fuel a 12-4 run that extended the Falcons’ lead 36-21. Three of the field goals during that run came on putbacks.

The Falcons had two more lopsided runs in them, one to end the third and the other to end the game. The latter featured their first two 3-pointers of the contest.

Junior Natalie Stott and freshman Keira Grio each scored six points for the Sharks. Whitmeyer was held scoreless in the first half and finished with five points.

“It was the man,” Yniguez said. “Their man-to-man defense was good. We didn’t seem to penetrate like I thought we would.”

Calfee also pulled down 10 rebounds, and Grio had five.

The Sharks look to rebound when they open Cypress Division play at King City (1-9) on Monday at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Falcons, who have already secured a spot in the Central Coast Section playoffs, have three nonleague games remaining to fine-tune for SCCAL play.

“We’re winning some of the games this year that we would’ve lost last year,” Hurvitz said. “Maybe that’s because we’re a little more veteran and don’t panic as much.”

They play at Carmel on Monday at 6:30 p.m., host San Jose’s James Lick on Tuesday at 7 p.m., and play at Woodside on Jan. 11 at 12:30 p.m.