Box Score The Banana Slugs had their home opener Friday night against Linfield University. The Men's basketball team started their season 1-1 on the road. Linfield traveled from Oregon to Santa Cruz 0-2 overall and left 0-3 against the talented Santa Cruz Men's team after the 90-81 win.
 
Tyler Kessinger changed the momentum in the first half. After the Banana Slugs were down 8-3, Kessinger had a three to bring the Banana Slugs within two. The Santa Cruz defense then ran the clock down again Linfield forcing a turnover.
 
Eric DeBrine, a transfer for UCSC this year, came out with a bang with an epic dunk in the first half to bring the Banana Slugs to an 11-8 lead.
 
The Banana Slugs went up 33-20 on Reece Ivanoff's "and one" before ending the half with an unfortunate "and one" on a three pointer. The half ended UC Santa Cruz up 40-37.
 
The second half started with both teams trading points. Sohan Kshirsagar came off the bench and hit some crucial threes and Kessinger hit free-throws to push the Banana Slugs to a 20-point lead to 68-48 by the middle of the half.
 
Linfield began their comeback with several crucial threes that eventually put them within four points in the last 6 minutes of the game.  Zino Okah broke their run with a layup from the baseline which put the UC Santa Cruz lead back to 72-65. However, Linfield responded to with a layup as well. Kessinger further ended Linfield's uncontested run with a corner three which made it 76-67 was followed with a second momentous dunk from Eric DeBrine that made it 78-69 with 4:09 left.
 

Linfield attempted another comeback with two deep threes, but was unable to secure the win against the Slugs' lockdown defense.
Kessinger led UC Santa Cruz with 21 points and 7 assists. Okah added 16, while Avri Finch had 15 plus a team-high ten rebounds. DeBrine had 13 points for his first double-figure game in a UCSC uniform. Overall, UC Santa Cruz shot 50% (30-50) from the field.
 
Reece Gibb led Linfield with 21 points.
The Banana Slugs play Sunday afternoon at Kaiser Permanente Arena against Caltech.