SANTA CRUZ, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz men's basketball team dropped a tight double overtime battle 84-75 to the Chapman Panthers on Saturday night.
Joseph Espy led the team with a double double, scoring 23 points while grabbing 10 rebounds.
Andrew Ferrara-Jones,
Ryan Wilson, and
Zino Okah all tallied double-digit points with 15, 13, and 10, respectively. The Banana Slugs will be back in the West Field House on Monday at 2:00 p.m. as they host George Fox.
How It Happened
The first half was fairly quiet in comparison to the rest of the contest as Chapman started the night with a three pointer before UCSC could take a short 4-3 lead with buckets from
Ryan Wilson and
Joseph Espy. The game would sit at a tie on three occasions before the Slugs managed to build a 15-10 lead following a jumper from
Miles Burrows.
From there, Chapman worked their way to a 27-23 lead heading into the halftime break. Out of the break, Chapman came out shooting, going 6-11 from the field with two three pointers, using a 17-9 run to extend their lead to 44-32 with 13:20 left in the half. The Banana Slugs managed to rally back and tie the game at 54-54m using a 22-10 run with impressive shooting, going 8-12 from the field and 4-5 from downtown. In that stretch,
Zino Okah and
Joseph Espy both tallied six points apiece to lead the charge. Both teams recorded six points each down the stretch to send the game into overtime tied 60-60.
Espy made the first shot of overtime after a Panthers turnover, giving UCSC a 62-60 lead but Chapman promptly responded with a three to make it 63-62. From there, the Slugs narrowly outscored Chapman 9-8 to tie it at 71-71, using some late game theatrics as
Andrew Ferrara-Jones hit a much-needed three before
Zino Okah stole the ball from Chapman on the following inbounds play. With 19 seconds on the clock, Ferrara-Jones was able to take the pass from Okah straight to the hoop for an easy layup and tie the contest at 71-71, sending the game to its second overtime period.
Unfortunately, Chapman was able to surge through the second OT, using a 13-4 effort in the final five minutes to defeat the Slugs 84-75.
