SANTA CRUZ, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz women's basketball team fell to Menlo College 67-50 on Tuesday night. Claire Galbo and Emily Ngo both recorded 14 points on the night while Alexa Litchev recorded nine points and nine rebounds. The Banana Slugs shot 36.7% from the field and 28.6% from downtown. The game featured four lead changes with the Slugs on top for just under 7 minutes of the contest, leading by as much as seven points. UC Santa Cruz will be back in action on Jan. 11 at 5:30 p.m. when they host Simpson College.
 
How It Happened
The first quarter was fairly silent as Menlo opened the contest on a 5-0 run before UC Santa Cruz scored their first basket of the night nearly five minutes in with two points from Alexa Litchev to make it 5-2. Menlo maintained control of the first quarter, working to a 12-5 lead after 10 minutes of play.
 
The Slugs came alive in the second quarter, outscoring the Oaks 18-12 to take a 25-24 lead heading into halftime. The surge was led by Claire Galbo who recorded nine points in the quarter while Emily Ngo chimed in for six with Danielle Tyner recorded the other three points.
 
The Oaks responded right out of the halftime break, hitting a three 11 seconds after the start of the quarter, setting the tone as they outscored UCSC 27-13 in the quarter to go up 51-38. The Slugs couldn't rally back in the fourth as Menlo held UCSC to 12 points in the quarter while scoring 16 of their own to hand UCSC a 67-50 loss at home.