WILMINGTON, Oh. – The UC Santa Cruz women's basketball team moved to 1-1 on the year following a 64-54 loss to the Christopher Newport Captains. The Slugs led 32-30 at the halftime break but a strong second half from CNU gave the Captains the victory.
Alexa Litchev led UCSC with 21 points and eight rebounds while
Emilie Ngo turned in 14 points, four rebounds, three assists, along with a block and a steal. UC Santa Cruz will be back in action on Nov. 14 when they travel to Whittier College at 6:00 p.m.
How It Happened
Christopher Newport got off to a quick start, opening the contest on a 5-0 run in the first minute and 24 seconds.
Lia Papador and
Jenna Gorton both recorded buckets to cut it to 5-4 with
Alexa Litchev and
Emilie Ngo added buckets of their own later to give UCSC the 8-7 lead with 5:33 to play in the first quarter. CNU made a layup to regain the lead at 9-8 but UCSC closed out the quarter on a 6-2 run to go up 14-11.
The second quarter was tightly contested with CNU outscoring UCSC 19-18. CNU managed to build a seven point lead at 27-20 but a three from
Alyssa Jackson and two free throws from
Emilie Ngo cut the margin to 27-25 with 2:55 left in the half.
Alexa Litchev was able to tie the contest after making a layup, getting fouled in the process, and later hitting the free throw to make it 28-28 with 1:49 left on the clock. UCSC outscored CNU 4-2 with four points from Litchev down the stretch to go up 32-30 heading into halftime.
Alexa Litchvev scored the first bucket of the second half, but CNU rattled off a 14-0 run to take a 34-44 lead over the Slugs.
Alexa Litchev brought the run to an end with her own 6-0 run, but CNU had the last bucket of the quarter with a free throw to make it 39-45 heading into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, CNU was able to outscore UCSC 19-15 with
Emilie Ngo and
Alexa Litchev doing the majority of the scoring while
Jenna Gorton,
Alyssa Jackson, and Lia Papadaor also pitched in. CNU's lead was too much to surpass as the Captains were able to earn the 64-54 victory.
