SANTA CRUZ-- The Men's Basketball team made the most of its Seniors' night on Friday, defeating local rival Bethany College, 80-71.

Junior Forward Nic Echevestre's 26 points lead UCSC. (top) In the final home game of his career, Junior Guard Jimmy Darr made six huge free throws down the stretch. (bottom

Junior Forward Nic Echevestre continued his stellar play of late, scoring 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting and collecting 6 rebounds. Senior Guard Jimmy Darr, playing the final home game of his career, scored 20 points with 5 assists.

Junior Guard Don "Dap" Peoples would lead the Bethany Bruins, scoring 31 points with 7 rebounds.

The win avenges an earlier season loss at Bethany College on January 5th. On that night UCSC squandered a major lead, eventually losing 86-90.

This time UCSC would hold on. Darr would hit six free throws in the final minutes as UCSC held off a late Bethany run. As the buzzer sounded, Darr was embraced by his coach and teammates.

Before the game, Seniors Darr and Center Jesse Senestrano were honored by their teammates in a packed West Field House.

Darr has played at UCSC for four seasons, establishing himself as one of the teams best shooters. This year, he lead the team in three-pointers with 34 and was the team's third-leading scorer with 9.3 ppg. Darr was also second on the team in assists with 42.

A transfer from Redwoods College, Center Jesse Senestrano may only have played one season for the Banana Slugs, but he definately made an impact. Senestrano was UCSC's second leading scorer this season at 14.0 points a game. He led the team in rebounds at 6.0. Perhaps his most impressive performance was against Division I St. Mary's on December 9. While most of the Slugs seemed completely overmatched against a more-talented Division I program, Senestrano stepped up, scoring 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting. Senestrano established himself as the team's starting center after that, averaging 15.1 ppg in Cal Pac Conference play.

After struggling at the start of their conference schedule, the Slugs have turned it up at the end of their season, winning four of their last five games.

The team has one final game remaining in the regular season as they travel to CSU Monterey Bay Saturday night. Game time is 7:30 pm.

Congratulations to Jimmy and Jesse for all the great moments they've given Slug Basketball fans. Good luck to both of them!