Thousand Oaks, CA --- The UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs used an early 13-2 run to pull away from WPI in a 64-37 non-conference women's basketball victory on Sunday afternoon at the Gilbert Arena as part of the 2013 Posada Royale Classic Tournament hosted by Cal Lutheran.

Dani Davis (East Granby, CT) sank a 3-pointer to even the game at 17:38 and Siena Mamayek (Melrose, MA) followed with a pair of second chance points on a layup for a 5-3 advantage. The final Engineer lead came at the 13:39 mark as Yasmeen Luna (North Providence, RI) hit a jumper for the 7-6 margin. The Banana Slugs then pulled away courtesy of the 13-2 spurt with just under nine minutes to play in the first stanza. Geena Giovannetti(Pacifica, CA) knocked down a 3-pointer to put UCSC back on top by 10. The Banana Slugs maintained the double figure lead throughout the remainder of regulation.

UC Santa Cruz pushed its advantage to 19 points at the intermission by way of a jumper fromLeah Parrish (Fair Oaks, CA) with just 13 ticks to go before the break. After halftime the Banana Slugs cruised. Late in the second Tyler Stewart (Scotts Valley, CA) connected for a three-pointer to produce the largest differential of the game at 32 points at 64-32.

UC Santa Cruz (10-6) spread out the offense with 12 different players contributing to the tally. Parrish led all players with 13 points and Sarah Mackey (Placerville, CA) was next in line for the Banana Slugs with eight. Taylor Willis (Napa, CA) handed out three assists today to share the game-lead. Defensively, Lashay Alexander (Bakersfield, CA) came down with a game-high seven rebounds followed by six from Parrish and Giovannetti nabbed a game-high five steals.

WPI (3-5) was paced by nine points from Davis on a trio of 3-pointers with Luna chipping in six as nine different Engineers netted as least one point. Mamayek shared game-high honors with three assists. On the glass, both Mamayek and Tess Nogueira (Merrimac, MA) grabbed six boards and seven players had a steal.

WPI faces off with host Cal Lutheran (3-7) at 2pm inside the Gilbert Arena on the final day of the Posada Royale Winter Tournament. UC Santa Cruz heads to UC Merced on Saturday for a 5:30pm matchup.

Major Portions Courtesy Cal Lutheran Sports Information