CLAREMONT- For the second-straight night in southern California, UC Santa Cruz let a halftime lead evaporate.

However, the Banana Slugs did not let this game get away as they held on to beat Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 84-76 in overtime.

UCSC improves to 6-4 following the three-game road trip. It's the first time in school history that the Banana Slugs are over .500 after ten games.

Claremont-Mudd fell to 2-6 and had a two-game win streak against the Slugs broken.

In the second half, CMS went on 13-5 run to tie it in the first five minutes at 40. There were five more ties in the second half; the final one on Jeremy Horn's layup to make it 69-all with 04.3 seconds left. The Slugs raced on the inbounds but Sam Gabbard's layup wouldn't fall and UCSC had their third overtime game of the year.
In overtime, the teams traded missed three-pointers until Ben Dorfman hit one for a 72-69 lead and UCSC never trailed again. A pair of Tyler Klingenbeck free-throws and a Gabbard three-pointer gave the Slugs a 79-71 lead with 0:58 to go.
The Stags converted three free throws after a foul to get within 79-74, but Adam Marlow converted two free throws on the next possession to make it 81-74. Gabbard then went 3-4 from the line on consecutive possessions following defensive rebounds to make it a 10-point game.

Gabbard finished with a career-high 29 points and went 13-18 from the line. He added 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Cilia finished with 15 points off the bench. Marlow had 6 assists to go with his 8 points courtesy of a perfect 8-8 free-throws.

Horn scored 17 to lead the Stags.

UCSC comes home for finals week before going to Hawai'i for two games.