NEWBERG, Or. – The UC Santa Cruz men's basketball team earned a dominant 97-67 victory over the George Fox Bruins on Saturday night in the Pacific Northwest. The Banana Slugs had 19 points from both Thoms Conley and Leo Wagner with the duo both grabbing five boards while Joseph Espy and Hunter Kennedy both added 12 points with Espy picking up seven rebounds. Caden Breznikar also had a solid night, adding nine points and nine rebounds in the convincing win.
 
How It Happened
The Bruins opened the night with a 6-0 run, but the Banana Slugs surged back quickly with 10 unanswered points as Hunter Kennedy and Thomas Conley both hit threes with Kennedy adding a layup while Aidan Carleson added a bucket as well in the run. George Fox narrowly outscored UCSC 9-7 to close the gap to 17-15 but the UC Santa Cruz offense proved to be hard to handle as a 17-7 run put the Slugs out in front 34-22 with 5:50 to play in the half. Joseph Espy led the charge in the run with six points while Leo Wagner, Caden Breznikar, and Jaden Gamez added five points, four points, and two points, respectively. The Banana Slugs continued to outpace George Fox, closing out the half with a 15-9 advantage in scoring to take a 49-31 lead into the halftime break.
 
Out of the break, George Fox used a 9-5 run to close the gap to 14 at 54-40 but a Thomas Conley three sparked a 9-2 run to increase the Slugs lead to 63-42 with 13:33 on the clock. The two teams traded buckets with the Bruins holding a slight 13-12 edge, but UCSC rattled off a quick 13-0 run that saw two threes and a pull up jumper from Thomas Conley along with a three from Hunter Kennedy and a free throw from Teni Salako, putting UCSC up 88-55 with 4:28 to play. The final moments of the contest saw the Bruins outscore UCSC 12-9, but the damage was done as UCSC earned a 30 point 97-67 victory over George Fox to start their weekend in the Pacific Northwest.