December 19, 2005
Bruised and Battered Slugs Look Forward to Christmas Break

The bruised and beat up Slugs finished up the first of the season losing 3 of their final 4 games as they knocked off Life Pacific College 79-62 in their first home game of the year before losing a close one to cross town Bethany College 70-76, Whitworth College 54-84 and Lewis and Clark College 93-52. The Slugs not only were battling the opponents, they were also battling injuries and the flu. Lorenzo Hutton, (out with a knee injury), Fernando Barreda, (suffering from a shoulder injury and the flu) gave it a shot but could not finish the weekend, Jarrod Heredia, (playing on a high ankle sprain) gutted out the weekend, Jon Miller, played despite a deep thigh contusion, Jimmy Herrera and Jon Mercado played despite battling the flu. In spite of all this, the Slugs still battled until the end.

Playing one of their better games of the year, the Slugs jumped out the gates and put Life Pacific away early as they jumped out to a 42-30 half time lead and never looked back. Shooting the ball better than they have all season, the Slugs shot 51% (30-59) from the field and 44% (10-23) from the 3 point line.

The Slugs got balanced scoring as they moved the ball around continuously to get open shooters great looks. Herrera led all scorers with 17 points, followed by Jon Miller and Jon Mercado with 16 and 12 points respectfully.

In the Bethany game the Slugs got out of the gate fast and jumped out to a quick 10 point lead behind 10 points from Jimmy Herrera, 8 points from Murphy Holmes and 6 points from Jon Miller. But Bethany started coming back into the game when the Slugs shooting slump continued to hurt them. In the first half the Slugs shot 23% (3-13) from the 3 point line, which allowed Bethany to climb back into the game and go in at the half, only trailing by 4 points 34-30.

The second half started bad for the Slugs in several ways. First the flu that was plaguing the team forced Mercado and Berreda to have to sit out the second half and they had turnovers in their first seven possessions to allow Bethany to take the lead. In spite of this start, the Slugs hung in the game on a gutty performance by Herrera, who finished with 22 points. Trailing by as much as 10 points, the Slugs battled back and cut the lead to 2 points with a minute left in the game, but Bethany made several clutch freethrows in the final 40 seconds to seal the victory.

In the game against Whitworth the battered Slugs never got out of the gate. Whitworth jumped out to an early lead and pounded the Slugs to 26-47 half time deficit. The smallish slugs were pounded on the boards by the much bigger Whitworth Pirates.

In the second half, the Slugs came out and battled the Pirates, but the lead was too much to overtake. The injuries started taking their toll as Barreda had to leave the game for good with his shoulder injury, and the shooting slump continued to haunt the Slugs. The Slugs finished shooting 38% (20-52) from the field and 38% (10-26) from the 3-point line. Again Herrera led all scores with 14 points followed by Holmes and Mercado with 11 points each.

The final of the first half of the season saw the Lewis and Clark Pioneers hit their first 10 shots, all 3 pointers and take a 31-8 lead in the first 5 minutes of the game and cruise to a 59-25 halftime lead and a 93-52 victory. The Slugs shooting woes continued as the Slugs were only able to shoot 24% (6-25) from the field and a dismal 12% (1-8) behind the 3-point line in the first half.

In the second half, the Slugs played with much more effort as they came out and made a run at the Pioneers before running out of steam. The Slugs were only outscored by 7 points in the second half as they scraped and clawed with everything they had. But the lead and all the injuries wore the Slugs down. Bryan Maeda, 11 points, and Michael Hicks, 10 points, led the Slugs with Herrera and Holmes chipping in with 9 and 8 points each respectfully.

The Slugs will take the next week off to go home and get a well-deserved rest, spend time with loved ones, and mend injuries before returning the day after Christmas and start preparing for the final half of the season. The Slugs will play their 4 games at home beginning December 29 (Holy Names University), 30th (Cal Maritime), January 3rd (Colorado College) and 4th (St. Joseph College of Maine).