UC Santa Cruz Pulls Away Late to Topple CMS Women's Basketball

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – The CMS women's basketball team hung tough with 6-1 UC Santa Cruz through the first half on a cold shooting day, but the Banana Slugs were able to pull away late on their home floor and capture a 62-41 win on Saturday afternoon at the Kaiser Permanente Arena.

CMS, which had been idle for 10 days for a final exam break since it was last in action against La Verne on Dec. 8, sees its record slip to 3-7 with the defeat, while UC Santa Cruz improves to 7-1. The Athenas got off to a quick 4-0 lead after a Jocelyn Song jumper and an Austyn Masuno layup in the game's first 1:30. However, the Banana Slugs then scored the next 13 points before Masuno snapped an eight-minute drought with a foul shot with 26 seconds left in the first quarter, making it a 13-5 game after the first 10 minutes.  

The Athenas showed their rust on offense from the exam layoff in the first half, but stayed in the game with their defense. CMS was within 17-10 with 6:51 left in the second quarter after two Masuno foul shots before a three-pointer from UC Santa Cruz stretched the lead to 20-10. Kayla Ishibashi then followed back-to-back baskets to end a stretch of 13 minutes without a field goal for the Athenas and cut the lead to just 20-14.

CMS hit six foul shots to answer Banana Slug baskets and stay within 26-20 at intermission, despite shooting only 4-25 from the floor, as Masuno (eight points, ten rebounds) nearly had a double-double in the first half alone. Jacey Carter made the first basket of the second half to close the deficit to four, but UC Santa Cruz was able to hold off the challenge and build the lead back up to 12 at the end of the third quarter (44-32).

Ishibashi had a floating jumper with 7:34 left to make it a 10-point game, but the Banana Slugs stretched it out to 20 in the final two minutes, before the game ended with a 62-41 final margin. Ishibashi finished with a team-high 12 points on 5-9 shooting and Masuno had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds, while Kaylee Murphy had 18 points and 17 rebounds for the Banana Slugs.  

The Athenas will be back in action tomorrow at Kaiser Permanente Arena for the second game of their final two-game road trip of the calendar year, when they will play a neutral site contest against No. 2 Whitman, which comes into the weekend with a 9-0 record.