LOS ANGELES- Their long December almost over, UC Santa Cruz fell victim to a blazing first half start in a 71-56 loss at Occidental on Friday night.

UCSC fell to 6-9 on the season. They are 3-7 in the month of December, with all ten games played on the road.

The Tigers improved to 11-0 after shooting 49.1%(27-55) from the field in the game, including a blazing 70.4% (19-27) in the first half.

After UCSC trailed 13-10 6:15 into the game, Occidental went on a 23-7 run over the next ten minutes to take a 36-17 lead. The Tigers pushed the lead to 52-23 at the half.

The Banana Slugs shot 46.2% from the floor (12-26) and outrebounded the Tigers 23-8 in the second half to make a game of it, but couldn't get closer than the 15 point final margin.

Sam Gabbard led UCSC with 22 points and 13 rebounds along with 3 assists. He passed Adam Sinton and Allen Koochof for 7th place on the school career scoring chart and now has 1,032.

Will Crain added 10 points and six rebounds. Calvin Keyes added season-highs of eight points and 2 blocks in 29 minutes off the bench.

Caleb Yellin-Flaherty led four Tigers in double figures with 19 points. He also had 5 of the 12 total Occidental steals.

UC Santa Cruz finish the two-game SoCal trip with a visit to Whittier tomorrow evening.