SANTA CRUZ, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz women's basketball team earned a thrilling 47-46 victory over the Whittier Poets. Alyssa Jackson led the team with 12 points and six rebounds while Claire Galbo chimed in for 11 points with Alexa Litchev scoring eight points with 10 boards. The Slugs will be on the road for their next three contest as they travel to Texas to take on UT Dallas, Mary Hardin-Baylor and East Texas Baptist January 2nd through January 5th.
 
How It Happened
The Whittier Poets controlled pace early in the first quarter as they started the night on a 9-4 run before the Slugs could slow them down, going an even 4-4 with the Poets to end the quarter trailing 13-8. The Poets struck first in the second quarter but a Claire Galbo three pointer kickstarted a 16-10 run for UCSC. Alyssa Jackson led the charge, chiming in for seven points to pull the Slugs within one at 25-24 at the halftime break.
 
Out of the break, the Poets made quick work of a 9-2 run that spanned three and a half minutes, extending their lead to 34-26 in the third quarter. The Slugs managed to cut the run short as Alexa Litchev hit a jumper before Ally Co hit a shot from downtown highlight the 5-0 run and cut the Poets lead to 34-31 with 4:36 left in the quarter. The run continued as Alyssa Jackson drained a three from the top of the key, tying things at 34-34 with 2:53 left in the third quarter. The downtown attack continued for the Slugs Lindsay Zientek hit a three with 1:37 on the clock to put UCSC up 37-34. Zientek's three capped off an 11-0 run for the Slugs that lasted for four minutes and 51 seconds, carrying UCSC into the fourth quarter.
 
The Slugs continued to control the action, starting the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run with points from Claire Galbo, Alexa Litchev, and Alyssa Jackson. Whittier finally responded with two points in the paint, bringing UCSC's 18-0 run to an end with 7:33 left to play in the contest with the Banana Slugs leading 44-36. The two teams traded threes to make it 47-39 with 4:21 on the clock but Whittier turned up the heat down the stretch, using a 6-0 run to cut the Slugs lead to 47-45 and force a UCSC timeout to regroup with just over 1:34 left to play. After back and forth possessions and timeouts, the Poets went to the line to shoot two free throws down by two with four seconds remaining but only came away with one make, leaving the Slugs with the ball and a 47-46 lead with 4.0 on the clock. After a turnover on the inbounds play, Whittier took over and called a timeout with 2.1 seconds remaining. The Poets nearly pulled off the buzzer beater from downtown, but the shot hit off the back of the rim, giving UC Santa Cruz the 47-46 victory over Whittier.