SPOKANE, Wa. – The UC Santa Cruz women's basketball team earned a 67-62 victory over the Whitworth Pirates on Wednesday evening. Emilie Ngo and Alexa Litchev led the team with Ngo turning in 18 points and six rebounds while Litchev recorded a double double with 17 points and 14 boards. Alyssa Jackson and Sarah Reuter also chimed in heavily with 14 points from Jackson and 10 points with eight boards from Reuter. The Banana Slugs will be back in action on Friday when they travel to Puget Sound University at 7:00 p.m.
 
How It Happened
The first quarter was closely contested with UCSC outscoring the Pirates 24-19, erasing an early 6-2 deficit by using an 11-7 run to tie the game at 13-13. From there the Banana Slugs outscored Whitworth 11-6 with points from Alyssa Jackson, Emilie Ngo, Sarah Reuter, and Danielle Tyner, taking a 24-19 lead into the second quarter.
 
The Banana Slugs exploded in the second quarter, outscoring Whitworth 20-2 with the Pirates only two points coming off a layup just 2:41 before halftime. Sarah Reuter, Emilie Ngo, Alexa Litchev, and Alyssa Jackson combined for the 20 points in the quarter to put UC Santa Cruz out in front 44-2.
 
The Pirates battled back in the second half, using a quick 5-0 out of the break to get the scoring started before closing the gap to 12 points at 52-40 with 1:07 on the clock. Sarah Reuter and Alyssa Jackson made a quick 5-0 run of their own down the stretch to put UCSC up by 17 at 57-40 heading into the fourth.
 
Whitworth continued their comeback attempt in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 unanswered points in the opening five minutes and 28 seconds of the fourth quarter, closing the gap to two points at 57-55. The contest remained tight from there with Whitworth closing the gap to 58-57 with 4:05 left but UC Santa Cruz used baskets from Litchev, Claire Galbo, Reuter, and Ngo to hold off the late surge from Whitworth, taking the 67-62 victory with strong playing down the stretch.