SANTA CRUZ, Ca. –  The UC Santa Cruz women's basketball team earned an 82-78 victory over the Chapman Panthers on Saturday evening. Claire Galbo led the Slugs with 18 points and nine rebounds while Alexa Litchev and Ariel Anderson both ended the night with 17 points. The Slugs will be back in action tomorrow afternoon at the KP Arena when they host Cal Lutheran at 3:30 p.m.
 
How It Happened
The Banana Slugs came out shooting quick against the Panthers, opening the contest on a 7-1 run with Clarie Galbo scoring every point for UCSC during the run. From there, the action evened out with the Slugs outscoring Chapman 15-13 for the remainder of the first quarter to take a 20-16 lead into the second quarter. Lia Papador was the key contributor in that run with five points while Ariel Anderson had four.
 
The action continued to heat up in the West Field House in the second quarter as Chapman's shots started to fall. The Panthers and Slugs went back and forth but Chapman outscored UCSC 16-11 to erase the deficit and take a narrow 32-31 lead. The Slugs and Panthers continued to go back and forth with Chapman taking a 37-35 lead into the halftime break as they outscored UCSC 5-4 down the stretch with Jenna Gorton and Lindsay Zientek both scoring two points.
 
Out of the halftime break, UCSC went on a 7-5 run that tied the contest at 42-42 but Chapman quickly regrouped to pull away from the Slugs, using a 15-11 run to outlast the third quarter efforts and take a 57-53 lead into the fourth.
 
Chapman struct first in the fourth to go up by six but the Slug used five points from Ariel Anderson and three from Claire Galbo to tie things at 61-61 with 7:38 remaining in the quarter. The action picked up UCSC going up 63-61 with a layup from Galbo before the two teams traded buckets, working towards a slim 70-69 Banana Slugs lead. UC Santa Cruz was strong down the stretch outscoring Chapman 12-9 with Alexa Litchev leading the charge with five points to seal the 82-78 victory over the Panthers.