December 6, 2005
Road Still Unkind to Slugs

EARLY LEADS: Bryan Maeda contributes 7 points and Jon Mercado brings in 27 points vs Menlo.

The UCSC Men's Basketball Team, coming off of a grueling road trip, finally gets their first win over Southwestern College of Arizona, 68-65.

The Slugs' last big road trip started off over the hill to face Menlo College. With little rest after their trip to Nebraska, the Slugs lost to the Oaks, 75-60.

The Slugs jumped out to an early lead behind some fine shooting from Bryan Maeda (7 points) and Jon Mercado (27 points), but they couldn't hold on as the fatigue of the previous trip caught up with them in the second half. They were out scored 43-31 in this half scooting 9-25 (36%) from the field. Jimmy Herrera continued his shooting slump, making only 1 of 10 shots from the field. As a team, the Slugs shot a dismal 19 for 52 (36%) for the game.

The next day, the Slugs were in vans heading off to Southern California to play in the University of Redlands Tournament.

Again playing on some weary legs and without their starting center, Jon Miller, the Slugs opened up the tournament with arguably the best DIII team in the country 8-0, Chapman University.

Still struggling with their shooting 11 for 30 (36%) in the first half, the Slugs again jumped out to a quick lead behind 4 for 4 shooting (11 points) of Bryan Maeda, before the more powerful Chapman came storming back and went into halftime leading 49-31.

The second half was a much different game as the Slugs would play Chapman even 28-26 on some gutty defense and the shooting of Jon Mercado (11 points) and Jarrod Heredia (12 points). Even with these performances, the Slugs couldn't over take Chapman and lost 77-57.

HIGH POINTS AND WINNING POINT: Jimmy Herrera led with 20 points and Fernando Barreda sealed the win vs Southwestern.

The next day, the Slugs finally broke into the win column with a 68-65 win over Southwestern. This game again saw the Slugs jump out to a early lead with a 40 to 24 first half behind some great shooting from slumping Jimmy Herrera, 6 for 8, 5 for 7 (3 pointers) and Bryan Maeda, 4 for 7 and 3 for 5 (3 pointers).

The second half was a completely different half as the Slugs again struggled. They were outscored 41-28 (7 for 26 (26%), from the field) in the second half and found themselves trailing by one with less than a minute to play. But the Slugs got a big lift from Fernando Barreda as he would hit several key freethrows and come up with 2 key steals to preserve the victory. Again the scoring was led by Herrera (20 points), Maeda and Mercado (12 points each).

In their final game of the tournament, the Slugs again jumped out to an early lead; this time it was against the Newport News Apprentice. The Slugs led at halftime 25 to 20 behind some great defense, even though they could only shoot 30% from the field (8 for 27).

In second half, the long road trip finally broke the Slugs down as they could only manage to shoot 25% from the field (7 for 27) and 20% from the 3 point line (5 for 25). To compound this, the Slugs lost Herreda for the game with a high ankle sprain and Lorenzo Hutton with a knee injury that could keep both of them down for some time. The final score of the game was Newport News 64 and the Slugs 55.

With this road trip behind them the Slugs have a week off and play Life Pacific College this Saturday December 10th, in their first home game of the year.