REDDING, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz women's basketball team earned a convincing 78-39 victory over the Simpson Red Hawks on Tuesday night. Alyssa Jackson led all scorers with 18 points with six three pointers on the night while Katie Busch and Jenna Gorton both chimed in for 13 points. Gorton grabbed eight rebounds while Sarah Reuter nearly had a double double with 10 points and eight boards as well. Emilie Ngo continued to dish out dimes, logging eight assists and eight points in the contest. The Banana Slugs will get a bit of a break as they don't play their next game until Feb. 5 when they host Simpson for a rematch at 4:00 p.m.
 
How It Happened
The Red Hawks led early after a 4-0 run, but the Banana Slugs started firing away from beyond the three point arc, hitting six straight threes to go up 18-7. The downtown flurry saw baskets from Alyssa Jackson, Emilie Ngo, and Bria Tate. Emilie Ngo and Sarah Reuter closed out the quarter with free throws to give UCSC the 21-7 lead after the opening 10 minutes.
 
Tate continued the three point shooting to start the second quarter as UCSC stormed through the next 10 minutes. UC Santa Cruz outscored the Red Hawks 25-6 in the quarter with Alyssa Jackson going 3-3 from downtown with Jenna Gorton and Bria Tate both hitting threes as well, giving the Slugs a strong 33 point lead at 46-13 heading into the halftime break.
 
The scoring slowed down slightly out of the halftime break with UC Santa Cruz earning the 14-9 advantage in the third quarter.  Katie Busch led the charge with five points with Jenna Gorton adding four of her own. The Slugs strong shooting put them up 60-22 heading into the fourth with Katie Busch highlighting the final moments of the third with another three pointer.
 
UC Santa Cruz kept things going in the fourth, using a 14-7 run to increase the gap to 44 points at 74-30. The run saw threes from Katie Busch and baskets from Bria Tate and Danielle Tyner. The Red Hawks were able to narrowly outscore UCSC late with a 7-4 advantage, but the damage was done as UC Santa Cruz earned the dominant 78-39 win.