On Faculty/Staff Appreciation Night, UC Santa Cruz pulled away late to beat Bethesda 74-64 at Kaiser Permanente Arena.

The Banana Slugs (7-12) had a strong start in the first half, keeping a constant lead over the flames. With 11:00 minutes to go in the first half UCSC led 13-7. Both teams were utilizing a high pressure man-to-man defense. Bethesda, with 6 mins left in the 1st, capitalized on their post presence and cut their deficit to 2 at 19-17. The Flames' 2-2-1 press frazzled the Slugs and a couple turnovers tied the game at 19-all with 4:00 minutes to play in the half.  A series of fouls on the defensive, as well as an offensive threat from Bethesda's Amar Ross, kept the Flames in the game conclude the first half ends with UCSC up 25-23. 

After a Bethesda layup tied it at 25-all, the Banana Slugs started the second half with a set of free throws from Haakon Ullrich to restore the 2 point lead. With a strong press on the Flames side and strong man-to-man defense for the Slugs, both teams began exchanging baskets. A couple of fast break points for the Flames and an "And-one" for Kevlin Swint gave Bethesda a 39-32 lead with 15:00 minutes to play. Strong defense and second chance baskets put the Slugs back in the game with a score of 43-43 with 9:45 to play. A deep 3-pointer from Bethesda gave the Flames a 3-point 46-43 lead, but a bucket on the other end by Avri Finch cut the lead to 1. A great display of two-man game between Simon Mueller-Landsvik and Finch led to a Slugs "And-one" and a 54-52 lead, the Slugs' first since the start of the half, forcing the Bethesda coach to call a time-out with 5:46 left.

Bethesda couldn't seem to contain Finch as he slowly grew the Slugs lead on the freethrow line, and UCSC never trailed again. With a little over 2:00 to play the Slugs employed a tight zone and eliminated the Flames' scoring presence under the rim. Slugs freshman Tyler Kessinger was huge in the second half on the offensive end, scoring ten of his career-high 12 after halftime. His final layup made the score 68-56 with 1:09 to play. Bethesda resorted to a fouling game after UCSC grew their lead to 12 points with 30 seconds left in the game before UCSC prevailed by the final ten-point margin.

Finch finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Patrick Ramos added 14 and Ryan Silva finished with 11. Lemon had 16 points to lead the Flames. The UCSC Banana Slugs are now on a 2-game winning streak heading into their Saturday game at Cal Lutheran.