UC Santa Cruz Athletics
9-13
Cal Miramar
Senior sharphsooters lead UC Santa Cruz to 91-74 win over Cal Miramar
2/1/2020 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Behind hot three-point shooting from their departing duo of Seniors, UC Santa Cruz raced to a big halftime lead and held of Cal Miramar for a 91-74 win at Kaiser Permanente Arena.
The Slugs did their warm-ups draped in Kobe Bryant gear to commemorate the loss of the Los Angeles Laker legend. Both teams started the game in a tight 2-3 zone. After four lead changes, an early-8 point run for the Slugs gave them a 20-12 lead over the Cal Miramar Falcons. With a score of 24-14 with 12:30 left to play in the half, the Slugs are able to secure stops on defense but struggle to convert on offense, the score remains as is for the three minutes following. A three-pointer from Simon Mueller-Landsvik ended the dry stretch at 10:15 left and the Slugs up 27-14. With 9:00 minutes to go in the 1st, a steal by Patrick Ramos and a buzzer-beating jumper by Avri Finch kept UCSC's lead at 29-17 with 7:32 left. An "and-one" from the Falcons' Taylor Tittle cut the Slugs lead to 9 and then another CMU three cut the lead to only 6 with 5:00 left in the half. Senior Rashard Thornhill answered with his 5th three-pointer of the half with 4:00 left. To return the favor, the other senior Eric Siegel hit a three with 2:00 minutes to play putting the lead back to 12. A full court press by the Falcons temporarily slowed down the Slugs offensive push, but a few steals and transition buckets by UCSC and another three from Siegel gave the Slugs a 47-30 lead going into halftime.
In the 2nd half, early back-to-back buckets from Finch put the Slugs up 51-33 with 17:50 to play in the game. Two sets of technical free-throws and a strong "and-one" from Mueller-Landsvik grow the Slugs lead to 56-39 at 15:30. With the score 71-47, the Falcons resort to a zone in hopes of shrinking the deficit. With 8:46 to play, a squabble under the rim leads to the ejection of three Falcons and two Banana Slugs, including Siegel. With a 20-point Banana Slug lead, Will Whitty and Garrett Kelly enter the game for UCSC for the first time. Garrett scores the first bucket of his career with a minute to play making it 89-70. The final bucket of the game by Whitty after three offensive rebounds made the final 91-74 to conclude senior night for the Slugs.
Siegel finished the game with a career-high 23 points, including 4-5 from long range, to lead four Slugs in double-figures. Thornhill added 18 on 5-10 three-point shooting to also hit a career-high. Joshua Welcome led CMU with 19 points plus five assists.
The Banana Slugs return to so Cal next weekend, starting a two-game road trip Saturday afternoon at La Verne.
