UC Santa Cruz had their amazing comeback just fall short as Menlo College held off the Banana Slugs 80-71 at Kaiser Permanente Arena on Tuesday.
UC Santa Cruz went to 3-3 after dropping their home opener.
Menlo opened the game with a 10-2 lead and held the Banana Slugs without a field goal in the first five minutes. Joe Espy broke the drought with a layup after a pass from Zino Okah. 
Menlo got their lead back to ten at 18-11, but UC Santa Cruz answered with an 8-0 run- bookended by three-pointers by Caden Breznikar and Zach Granberry- to get within two at 18-16 with ten minutes left. Menlo got their lead back to 25-16 with 7:26 left, but UC Santa Cruz answered again and kept close with the Oaks the rest of the half.

Menlo stretched their 39-32 halftime lead to ten points four times in the second half  but the Banana Slugs answered every time. After Menlo's biggest lead of 62-49 with 8:05 left, UC Santa Cruz struck back with a 7-0 run to be within six at 62-56 with 6:25 remaining. A three-pointer from Ryan Wilson made it a three-point game with just over 4 minutes left, and Okah was fouled after a steal and hit a free throw to make it a two-point game at 66-64 with 3:37 remaining.

However, the Oaks closed out the game on a 14-7 run, including going 11-14 on free throws.

Espy led UC Santa Cruz with 19 points off the bench. Okah and Ian McCloskey each added 11 points, with Okah adding five rebounds and team-highs of three assists and two steals.  UC Santa Cruz finished with a 34-12 advantage in bench points in the game. Landon Seaman led Menlo (8-1) with game highs of 26 points and nine rebounds. The Banana Slugs head to Oregon this weekend for two games, starting with Lewis and Clark on Saturday.