January 5, 2006
Slugs Split Home Stand

After being road warriors for most of the season, the UCSC Men's Basketball Team finally had a chance to play in the confines of their own court for more than a game. Unfortunately they were only able to manage a split as they lost to Holy Names University, 58-85, beat Cal State Maritime, 73-62 and Colorado College 61-58 and lost to St. Joseph of Maine, 67-76.

In their 1st game against Holy Names, the Slugs mishandled the ball, shot poorly and was just outplayed by a more aggressive team. The Slugs committed 19 turnovers and missed 18 shots inside of 5 feet of the rim. Holy Names took advantage of these miscues by turning the opportunities into 71 of their 85 points.

Jimmy Herrera and Bryan Maeda led the Slugs with 15 and 12 points respectfully, but it was again the Slugs' inability to put the ball in the basket that hurt them. They were 19 for 54 (35%) from the field and 4 of 12 (33%) from the 3 point line. They were also pounded on the boards by a total of 43 to 25.

The next night, the Slugs looked like a different team, as they came out and outplayed a much improved Cal Maritime team 73-62.

This was perhaps the Slugs' best shooting performance of the year as they shot 27-39 (70%) from the field and 13 for 20 (65%) from the 3-point line.

Jimmy Herrera led all Slugs with 23 points and freshman Michael Hicks played his best game of the year by adding 19 points.

However, it was a team effort, as the team collectively played with a sense of urgency and passion they hadn't shown all year. Defensively, they were all over the floor and played better offensively, moving the ball and getting good looks at the basket all night long.

The 3rd game of the home stand pitted the Slugs against D-3 Western Independent rival, Colorado College. The game was very competitive and saw the Slugs lead by as much as 15 points. The Slugs went in at halftime leading by 9 points, 30-21, but the second half would be a different story.

Colorado came out and took advantage of the Slugs feeling good about their 1st half and made a run that would eventually allow them to tie the Slugs in the final minutes of the game. Mister Clutch Jimmy Herrera, who led all the Slugs in scoring, hit several key buckets in the final minutes of the game on his way to a 17 point night. Murphy Holmes, who was a spark off the bench, chipped in with 11 key points to keep the Slugs even or on top. But it was Charlie Peck (another freshman) who preserved the win. With Slugs up by a point, Charlie came up with a big rebound and was fouled. Charlie calmly went to the line and hit 2 clutch freethrows to secure the win.

The next night, the Slugs took on a tough team from Maine, St. Joseph. St. Joseph had the opportunity to watch the Slugs play against Colorado and they took advantage of several mistakes by the Slugs to come from 15 points down in the 1st half. They eventually handed the Slugs a very discouraging 67-76 loss.

The Slugs opened the game pressing St. Joe's and caused numerous turnovers to take a 1st half lead. The resilient Monks of St. Joes hung in and cut the led to 3 by the end of the half.

The 2nd half was a different story as St. Joe's came out and took it to the out of sync Slugs, scored 53 points to take the lead, and put the Slugs away.

The Slugs were led in scoring by Murphy Holmes, Jon Miller with 14 points each and Jimmy Herrera with 12 points.

The Slugs committed 23 turnovers to only 7 assists and again shot poorly from the field, 22 for 54 (40%) and 6 for 19 (31%) from the 3 point line. The discouraging part of the shooting was not the number of misses as much as it was type of misses. Again, the Slugs missed 12 shots from inside 5-feet and most of their perimeter shots were good, uncontested, wide-open looks that they could not sink. Hopefully, the Slugs will find their shooting eye as the leave for Southern Cal to take on Cal Lutheran and Pomona Pitzer.