UC Santa Cruz overcame a three-point shooting slump and outlasted Westcliff University 59-54 on Senior Night at Kaiser Permanente Arena.

The Banana Slugs won their third-straight game to improve to 13-11.

Westcliff took advantage of UCSC's slow start and worked their way to a 17-10 lead midway through the first quarter and were up 19-14 at the end of the first.. A 7-2 UCSC run tied it at 21 with 5:19 left when Alaina Alvarez banked in a three-pointer after UCSC missed ten in a row to start the game. The back-and-forth quarter finished tied at 29-29.

The Warriors however didn't lose their momentum however, opening the second half with a 7-0 run for their biggest lead at 36-29 2:30 into the third. The Banana Slugs finally found their rhythm. They tied the game at 39-all on Murphy's free-throw with 2:18 left, eventually finishing the quarter on a 15-3 run to take the lead at 44-39 at the end of the third.

Westcliff came back with another strong run to start the fourth, scoring eight unanswered points to lead 47-44 with 6:10 to play. The Banana Slugs tied it at 47-all on an ingenious "and-1" by Maddie Brauer, who inbounded it off a Westcliff player to herself and flipped in the layup as she was fouled. The Warriors got the lead back twice as teams traded layups, until finally the Banana Slugs broke their three-point drought as CJ Catina buried a jumper from the right to give UCSC a 52-51 lead with 3:40 left. 

Amanda Inserra stretched the lead to 54-51 on two free throws and the Warriors finally cooled off. Westcliff had two turnovers and missed six straight shots down the stretch. UCSC made their free-throws down the stretch and built up an eight-point lead before Westcliff hit their only three of the game at the buzzer for the final margin.

Kaylee Murphy led all scorers with 19 points. She added 14 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the year along with 3 blocks. Lilli Hammons added a career-high 8 points off the bench on 4-5 shooting. Mammusu Secka had 16 points for Westcliff and Lauren Davis added 15 points and 10 rebounds. 

The Banana Slugs hit just 3-31 three-pointers on the night, with two of them coming from seniors Catina and Alvarez. UCSC heads to the ACAA Tournament next weekend in Milwaukee.