SANTA CRUZ, Calif. –
Haylie Wang had a double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds, and the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's basketball team used an 12-0 run late to break open a tie game as it captured a 51-41 road win at UC Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon at Kaiser Permanente Arena on the first day of the Slug Tip-Off Shootout.
UC Santa Cruz trailed 31-11 in the first half, but came all the way back to tie it at 39-39 with 5:57 left in the contest. CMS then responded with a 9-0 run to take control again.
Tanya Ghai started the run with a basket, then had a block on the defensive end, leading to a three-point play from
Georgeanna Dempsey.
Ghai then added another lay-up to put CMS up 46-39, and Wang scored off a Ghai feed with 2:07 left to stretch the lead to nine. Three foul shots extended the lead to 51-39, before the Banana Slugs finished off the game with a late layup.
CMS opened up a 19-11 lead after the first quarter, using a 7-0 run to go ahead 16-6.
Payton Sugar started the spurt with a three-pointer to make it 12-6, and Ghai and
Amanda Kerner followed with lay-ups.
The Athenas opened up the second quarter on a 12-0 run behind three-pointers from Kerner, Wang and Ghai and a lay-up and foul shot from Dempsey to surge in front 31-11. The Banana Slugs finally made their first basket of the quarter with 2:23 left and closed out on a 7-0 run to get back within 31-18.
The Banana Slugs held CMS to just six points in the third quarter to get back to within 37-33 heading into the fourth,
Ghai joined Wang in double figures with 13 points, while Kerner finished with nine.
Naima Joseph was close to double figures in rebounds as well, finishing with nine, and helped anchor a defense that held UC Santa Cruz to just 23.3 percent shooting from the floor (14-60). The Banana Slugs were also 0-13 from three-point territory on the day.
CMS will be back in action tomorrow for the second day of the Tip-Off Shootout, taking on Hardin-Simmons at 1 p.m.
