THOUSAND OAKS, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz men's basketball team fell to the Kingsmen 81-65 on Saturday night in Southern California. With the loss, the Slugs are now 5-4 on the season and will be back in action on Dec. 6 and Dec. 7 when they travel to St. Louis for the Lopota Classic with games against Denison and WashU.
 
How It Happened
The Banana Slugs got off to a slow start as Cal Lutheran started the night on a 7-2 run. UCSC managed to rally back and take a 10-9 lead thanks to eight points from Andrew Ferrara-Jones. The Kingsmen countered with a 12-0 run to take an 11 point lead at 21-10. CLU continued to pour it on as they increased their gap to 18 points at 31-13. The Slugs offensive struggles continued as CLU went up by 19 points at 36-17 for their largest lead of the half. UCSC was able to get buckets from Ian McCloskey and Ryan Wilson down the stretch to make it 38-21 heading into halftime.
 
Out of the break, the Kingsmen controlled the pace of play, working to a 61-31 lead with 13 minutes remaining in the half. A 7-0 lead from UCSC cut the deficit to 23 points at 61-38 with 8:45 left on the clock. The Kingsmen managed to respond and work to a 74-47 lead with UCSC trying to close the gap in the final few minutes. The Slugs saw buckets from Thomas Lawrence, Max Majcher, and Ollie Miller, cutting the gap to 16 points at 81-65. Unfortunately, that score would hold through as the Slugs fell to CLU 81-65.