Ariel Anderson had a career-high 20 points as UC Santa Cruz closed their weekend with a 67-51 loss at 24th-ranked Whitman College.

UC Santa Cruz goes to 1-1 on the young season. 

UC Santa Cruz trailed 12-10 after one quarter. In the second, Whitman pushed the lead to as much as 12 points and had the Banana Slugs in a ten-point deficit at halftime. The Blues then scored the first nine points to open the third quarter and push the lead to 39-20. 

That's when the Banana Slugs started to come back. With 5:14 left, Anderson was fouled on a three-point attempt and hit all three free throws for UC Santa Cruz's first points of the quarter. That started a 23-12 run the rest of the quarter, which was capped by consecutive layups by Alyssa Jackson and Anderson that put the Banana Slugs within eight at 51-43 heading into the last ten minutes.

The Blues, however, opened the last quarter on an 11-2 run over five minutes to push their lead back to double digits and kept the Banana Slugs from threatening the rest of the way.

Anderson added team-highs of eight rebounds and three blocks. Jackson scored 17 points, including a pair of three-pointers. The Banana Slugs finish their season-opening road trip with two games in Los Angeles next weekend, starting with Pomona-Pitzer at 5:00 pm on Saturday.