SANTA CRUZ, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz men's basketball team fell to UC Merced 75-51 on Friday night at KP Arena. Zino Okah led the team with 12 points and six assists while Andrew Ferrara-Jones and Caden Breznikar both ended the night with eight points. The Banana Slugs are now 10-9 on the season and will have a couple weeks off before traveling to Salisbury, Maryland to take on Salisbury at 3:00pm Pacific Time.
 
How It Happened
UC Merced jumped out to an early 5-0 lead before Andrew Ferrara-Jones brought the run to an end with a shot from downtown. The Bearcats made it 7-3 with a layup but a Miles Burrows three kept things close at 7-6. with just over 15 minutes left in the first. From there, UC Merced outscored the Slugs in a slight 13-9 advantage to take a 20-15 lead before using the next four minutes and 22 seconds to extend the lead to 29-20. UC Santa Cruz managed to climb back down the stretch of the half, outscoring the Bearcats 7-5 with three points from Zino Okah while Ryan Wilson and Andrew Ferrara-Jones both chimed in for two to cut the lead to 34-27 at the halftime break.
 
The Bearcats struck first after the break, but Okah responded with a three of his own before striking again from distance nearly a minute later, cutting the UC Merced lead to 37-33. The Bearcats quickly responded with an 11-5 run to go up 48-38 with 14:24 on the clock. The Slugs were held scoreless for nearly a minute and a half as UC Merced scored nine straight points to extend their lead to 57-38.
 
Ryan Wilson brought the scoring drought to an end with a midrange jumper to help jumpstart the offense with just over 10 minutes remaining in the half. The two teams traded baskets from there, but UC Merced maintained a strong lead at 63-44 with 9:21 left in the contest. The Bearcats closed out the contest on a 12-7 run to defeat the Banana Slugs 75-51.