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Home  |  Roster  |  Schedule/Results  |  Coaching Staff  |  News  |  Team Statistics

February 25th, 2011
Matsuoka Keeps Slugs Grounded as he Places One Foot on the Accelerator While the Other Crushes Nebraska Wesleyan’s Championship Hopes

SANTA CRUZ, CA -- Ryan Matsuoka scored 31 points Friday night including the Slugs’ final 12 points in the game to give UCSC a hard fought 74-71 victory over the Prairie Wolves of Nebraska Wesleyan. The Slugs will play Chapman University, a 73-43 winner over Dallas, for the All Independent’s Championship at 7pm on Saturday night while NW will play University of Dallas at 5pm for third.

6’8 Bryce Arp got the Prairie Wolves on the board first with a lay up just 20 seconds into the game. Santa Cruz freshman Trent Reeves answered back the next time down the court with a deep three off of a Darrin Lew assist to give the Slugs the early lead. Playing strong inside defense, the combination of Brent Jacobs and Jake Moore was able to shut down the inside game of Arp after he scored NW’s first 6 points. Pressure defense outside led to numerous opportunities for the Slugs as steals by Jamien Jones and Sam Allen led to easy fast break baskets for SC, stretching the Slugs’ lead to 8 with just over 9 minutes left in the first half. NW’s Nick Dinan then started raining threes and twos to keep the Prairie Wolves close. A two with 7:22 left in the half cut the Slug lead to two points and a minute later, freshman Johan Bradley hit a short jumper to cut the margin to one. Ryan Matsuoka then foreshadowed the dramatic second half, responded by draining a three and scoring an old fashioned three-point play on a lean in jumper. Still, the Prairie Wolves didn’t go away, using outside shots to keep the game close. Attempting to change it up, they pushed the ball inside to Arp, only to have his short jumper spiked high off the far wall by Brent Jacobs, a play that would have made any of the Slug volleyball players proud. On the ensuing play, Jake Moore joined the block party; once again rejecting Nebraska’s interior shot and pretty much guaranteeing that the rest of the NW offense would take place outside the paint. Trent Reeves put back basket gave the freshman Slug bookend baskets for the half and the men from Cruz a 38-33 halftime lead.

The second half started with a Brent Jacobs lay in followed by a Brent Jacobs block on the other end. Ryan Matsuoka hit a short pull up jumper three minutes into the half to give the Slugs their biggest lead of the game, a nine-point bulge. Nebraska slowly cut into the lead with Bradley and Dinan leading the charge. Two pick and roll baskets by Greg Palmer off of Sam Allen assists sandwiched a Nick Dinan three point play to keep the Prairie Wolves close When Johan Bradley hit a three from the top of the key with 12:30 gone in the second half, the game was tied for the first time since the opening tip. Another pick and roll by Palmer and Allen gave the Slugs a brief lead, but NW’s Bradley answered right back. A Moore soft hook gave the Slugs another brief lead, but it was answered by a put back basket by Jim Lance. Then, with 5:54 left, senior Ryan Matsuoka took over. Working the passing game, Darrin Lew found Ryan all alone from the right elbow for a three. A fourth Brent Jacobs block stopped Nebraska’s answer leading to a driving lay up for Matsuoka to stretch the lead to five with 4:26 left. A free throw and then a three by freshman Eric Jackson brought the lead back down to one before Ryan, with two NW defenders draped over him, hit a leaner. Nebraska then went on a 6-0 run to take their first lead since 40 seconds into the first half. With 1:51 left in the second half, Dinan hit a jumper off of a steal to take the lead. Matsuoka was fouled on a drive 14 seconds later and calmly knocked down both free throws. On the other end, Nebraska missed both ends of a pair of free throws, but pulled down the offensive rebound and with 1:20 left, patently ran their offense. Pressure defense forced NW into a traveling call and the Slugs had the ball with 45 seconds left. Working the ball around, Matsuoka was once again fouled going to the hole. In the only flaw in his 5:54 masterpiece, Ryan missed the second of two free throws. But coming out of nowhere, 5’10 Sam Allen soared above the giants to pull down an important offense rebound and the Slugs had the ball and a one-point lead. Forced to foul, Nebraska did not catch up with Matsuoka until 12.3 seconds left. Ryan hit 2 more free throws stretching the Slug lead to three. After Nebraska turned the ball over with 7.8 seconds left, the Slugs returned the favor. Rather than letting the Prairie Wolves launch another three, Santa Cruz fouled Jonah Bradley with 1.9 seconds left. Making the first, Bradley tried to miss the second, but instead banked in the free throw, once again cutting the lead to one. On the inbound play, Matsuoka was fouled immediately. With just 1 second left on the clock, Ryan swished his thirtieth and thirty-first points of the game. Nebraska’s long pass attempt ended up in the safe hands of Brent Jacobs as the clock ran out and the Slugs were on the way to the Ship against Chapman.

For the Slugs, Ryan Matsuoka’s thirty-one points included eight for nine from the line, most during that critical last stretch. Greg Palmer was a perfect five for five from the field to score eleven points and Brent Jacobs pulled down twelve rebounds and had at least four blocked shots. Freshman Trent Reeves led the team with four assists and Sam Allen ran the pick and roll to perfection with Greg Palmer. The Slugs shot almost 52% for the game and overcame the 53.8% shooting of NW from behind the arc. Johan Bradley was a perfect four for four from behind the arc and teammate Nick Dinan was four for seven. They both scored sixteen points. The Prairie Wolves dropped to 9-17 for the season while the Slugs equaled the all time win mark for the program, winning 13 games for only the third time in UC Santa Cruz basketball history. Currently, they are at 13-13.