SANTA CRUZ, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz men's basketball team dropped a hard fought 102-88 contest to the No. 6 University of Redlands Bulldogs in the 2025-26 season opener. Ben Lim led the team with a double double with 22 points and 10 rebounds while Andrew Ferrara-Jones and Joe Espy both turned in 17 points while Espy added seven boards. UCSC shot 62.5% from the field but struggled from downtown, going 4-16 for a 25.0% clip. UC Santa Cruz will be back in action on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. when they host the Pacific Lutheran Lutes at KP Arena.
 
How It Happened
The No. 6 ranked Redlands Bulldogs struck first and jumped out to an early 4-1 lead, but the tides began to turn as UC Santa Cruz used an 18-4 run to force a Redlands timeout with the Slugs on top 19-8. The run saw UCSC hit two threes off the hands of Ben Lim and Andrew Ferrara-Jones while Joe Espy led the charge with six points. The Bulldogs were able to battle back with a 15-10 advantage, closing the gap to 29-23 with 10:05 left in the first half. Leo Wagner and Miles Burrows electrified the crowd as the duo hit back to back threes to put UC Santa Cruz on top 35-25 with 8:40 remaining in the first half. Redlands was quick to responded as they hit three straight jumpers in 44 seconds for a 6-0 run, cutting the lead to 35-31.
 
The Bulldogs continued to close the gap, pulling within one at 37-36 with 6:11 left in the half but layups from Ben Lim and Andrew Ferrara-Jones put UCSC up by three at 41-38 with 4:40 remaining. The half remained a tight battle with the Bulldogs taking their first lead of the night after back to back three-pointers put Redlands on top 45-43 with 3:28 left in the first half. Redlands used a slight 4-4 advantage down the stretch to take a 52-47 lead heading into the halftime break.
 
UC Santa Cruz struck first coming out of the halftime break with a layup from Joe Espy, but Redlands used a 10-6 run to extend their lead to 62-55 at 14:43. The two teams traded buckets back and forth with Redlands narrowly outscoring UCSC 16-13 over the course of a six minute and 45 second stretch, working to a 78-68 lead with 8:19 left in regulation. Ben Lim and Leo Wagner led UCSC in that stretch with Lim chiming in for five points while Wagner added four. Three points from Joe Espy and one from Caden Breznikar made up the rest of the scoring in that run as the two teams headed to a media timeout with 7:39 on the clock. Redlands continued to make it difficult for the Slugs, using a 5-2 run to surpass the 80 point mark with an 83-70 advantage. From there, UCSC briefly outscored the Bulldogs 9-6 with baskets from Leo Wagner, Andrew Ferrara-Jones, and Joe Espy, cutting the Redlands lead to 89-79 with 4:10 remaining in the contest.
 
The final four minutes of action saw the Bulldogs go on a 5-0 run before Ferrara-Jones hit a long two point jumper from the top of the arc bring the run to an end with Redlands out in front 94-81 with 2:40 on the clock. The Bulldogs were able to close out the contest with a slight 8-7 advantage, defeating UC Santa Cruz 102-88 in the season opener.