Wednesday, January 7
UC Santa Cruz Athletics
67
vs
89
Cal St. Stanislaus
Another loss for the Slugs
4/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By JIM JOHNSON Sentinel Correspondent
SANTA CRUZ - It hasn't been an easy season for the UCSC Banana Slugs. The men's basketball team has been in way over its head against non-league opponents. And, going into the Slugs' 11th game of the season Wednesday, things didn't look to be getting better any time soon. In fact, UCSC was ripe for a blow-out.
First, the Slugs were going up against the Cal-State Stanislaus Warriors, the 12th-ranked Division III team in the country. Second, UCSC was missing three of its top players because of disciplinary reasons. Bruno Baldini, UCSC's top scorer, Sandro Meallett, the Slugs' best big man, and Will Strickland were all benched for missing the Slugs' last game. But, the Slugs sent who they had up against the Warriors and, despite being out-manned and giving up an average of nearly four inches in height throughout the lineup, managed to put up a fighting effort, losing by just 89-67.
"We were very aggressive and I was happy with that," said UCSC Coach Mark Henry, whose Slugs fell to 0-11.
"We certainly didn't rebound well enough but they (Stanislaus) play six to eight inches taller than we do. They play against Division II competition. Our schedule has been very tough and this (losing by 22) is how most of our games have turned out."
But, while the Warriors dominated the inside the Slugs bombed away from way, way out. Tom Rowean scored 18 points for UCSC, all on three-point shots. Kurt Jaeger led UCSC with 19 points and nine rebounds.
