LA VERNE- UC Santa Cruz traveled down south this weekend to face the LaVerne Leopards. The Banana Slugs remained victorious, ending the game with 84-72 coming back from a close first half.
 UC Santa Cruz won their third straight to improve to 6-4 and tie for the best start in school history.

The game started out close with LaVerne and Santa Cruz trading points back and forth. Tyler Kessinger had two back-to-back three pointers in the first half at the 14th and 16th minute that helped the Slugs stay in the game against LaVerne. Eric Debrine closed the first half with a three pointer with less than a minute to go, the Slugs refusing to let up the gas even in the half's final moments. Going into halftime, the score was 37-34 in favor of the Slugs. Kessinger led the Banana Slugs with 10 points in the first half.
 
This momentum carried into the second half, with the Slugs continuing to challenge LaVerne's points with their own. The second half started with a jumper by LaVerne that Avri Finch quickly responded with a jumper of his own. This neck-and-neck pattern continued, with another jumper by LaVerne that Calvin Keyes responded to with his own. First-year Justin Yasukochi subbed in the second half taking his chance to shine, giving the Slugs two assists and a big three to help the Slugs push the lead out to 56-45.
 
Santa Cruz continued to put up a fight ending the game 84-72. The Slugs dominated the paint outscoring Laverne 40-20.  Finch led this in the paint domination with 14 points on 7-10 from field goal opportunities. The Santa Cruz men had a wide range of scorers with Ian McCloskey and Kessinger also scoring 14 points each to pull out the win. Debrine followed with 9 points and Treyson Keating with 8.

The Banana Slugs finish their SCIAC roadtrip when they play at Cal Lutheran Sunday afternoon.