APTOS — Santa Cruz High’s girls basketball team was playing good defense, but it needed someone to step up on offense to gain some separation from feisty Aptos in a battle of the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League’s top two teams Tuesday.

Karolina Espinosa delivered. The sophomore forward scored 10 of her game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, and the Cardinals pulled away from the Mariners for a 47-39 win to secure their third straight league title.

“It really means a lot, because now we’re league champions, which we’ve done the past two years, so it’s real exciting for us,” Espinosa said.

Really, the Cardinals have won four straight league titles, if you count the COVID-19 season. The SCCAL had a two-division setup in 2020-21 that featured all 13 schools from Santa Cruz County. (Santa Cruz went 10-0 in the SCCAL ‘A’ Division, and beat Aptos for the Central Coast Section Division III title to finish 16-0.)

The Cardinals are 37-2 in league games over the past four years. They close their regular season with a home game against San Lorenzo Valley on Friday at 6 p.m.

“It’s huge, 9-0 in league,” Cardinals coach Todd Trowbridge said. “We haven’t lost in two years in league. But I told you last time, I told you they were going to be ready. My girls were ready. We lose and we tie for first place with them. We don’t want to tie for first place.”

Aptos (15-7, 7-2) closes its regular season with a home game against Harbor on Friday at 6 p.m.

Tuesday’s battle was a far more competitive game than the teams’ first meeting on Jan. 12, when the host Cardinals rolled to a 68-35 win.

“We played much harder,” Mariners coach Bruce Funk said. “Shots were not falling, but a lot of that you have to give credit to Santa Cruz. We just gave up too many offensive rebounds. But, we were right there, a shot here or a shot there. They can say the same thing. They missed a lot of shots. But we’ll take the effort and, hopefully, we see them again.”

The thing that remained the same was the Cardinals’ pressure defense, which hasn’t allowed a league opponent to reach 40 points in a game this season.

“All over the place,” Trowbridge said. “Hands up, getting in the passing lanes, bothering them … They’ve got good shooters. They’ve got three girls who can put the ball up and shoot it. We had to get up and get a hand in their face.”

The Cardinals led 29-27 early in the fourth when Espinosa took over. She made three field goals and four free throws during a 16-9 run.

Keying several of Espinosa’s baskets was center Ava Lord, who battled for offensive rebounds against physical Abby Sherwood and sent the ball out to her open teammate to record some dirty-work assists.

“We don’t win that game without Ava Lord at the end,” Trowbridge said.

Espinosa’s older sister, Natalia, a senior, scored 10 points for the Cardinals. Tiera O’Connor, who scored a game-high 24 points in the teams’ first meeting, was held to six points. Linneah Keence added five points.

“We told them before the game, ‘Play for each other.’ ” Trowbridge said. ” ‘You do that, we have the game.’ ”

Aptos freshman guard Gabby Wickham scored 10 of her team-high 12 points in the second half. She made a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to keep the Mariners in contention.

“She’s a good player,” Trowbridge said. “She’s going to be tough to deal with the next three years. I’m not looking forward to it.”

Senior Laurel Southall made three of the Mariners’ eight 3s and finished with nine points. Eliya Sanchez and Sherwood each scored six points.

Funk was proud of his players for their continued development. Seven of them are returners from a team that went 8-18 last season.

“I think we’ve made tremendous improvements,” Funk said.

Santa Cruz went nearly five minutes without a field goal to open the game, but it only trailed 3-2. It scored six points in the final 1:08 of the opening stanza and entered the second quarter down 9-7.

Both teams’ struggles on offense continued for the first four minutes of the second quarter. The Cardinals made four layups during an 8-2 run to close first half and entered the break with a 20-14 lead.

Each team made a pair of 3s in the third quarter — they were the only field goals. Aptos made six free throws to help their cause and entered the fourth trailing 29-26.

That was Karolina Espinosa’s cue.