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UC Santa Cruz women's basketball will welcome four other schools to town this week as they host the 12th annual UCSC December Classic at Kaiser Permanente Arena.

The Banana Slugs will face Pacific University to open the Classic on December 19th before closing with a first-time meeting against Hamilton College of the NESCAC. Lewis and Clark College (Oregon) and Coe College (Iowa) will be the other teams to participate.

UC Santa Cruz comes into the contest 4-5 after a 67-58 loss to Menlo College before finals. Lilli Hammons led the Banana Slugs with a career-high 18 points, while Talysha Wilkerson scored a season-high 17.

About Pacific
The Boxers from Forest Grove, Oregon are coached by Alecia Parker, who is in her fourth season as head coach. The Boxers are 4-3 and defeated Northwest Conference rival Whitworth by 39 points in their last game on December 2nd. They are led in scoring by a pair of fifth-year players in Brilie Kovaloff (14.0 points/game) and Sydney Gray (10.7). This is the third time Pacific has been in the December Classic, who are returning to the event for the first time since 2018.

About Hamilton
Led by fifth-year coach Mahogany Green, the Continentals from Clinton, NY are a perfect 10-0 so far this season, and are 15th in Division III in scoring defense (48 points/game). 2023 NESCAC Rookie of the Year Taylor Lambo leads Hamilton averaging 15.2 points and 9.6 rebounds a game. Kendall Harris averages 14.9 points and 9.3 rebounds, along with team highs of 2.4 assists and 1.8 steals.

About Coe
The Kohawks are coached by Kayla Waskow, a seventh-year head coach that spent two years previously as an assistant and four years as a player at the school.
Caydee Kirkham averages 16.6 and 5.4 rebounds a game. Kaalyn Petersen averages 13.2 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.0 blocks.

About Lewis and Clark
The Pioneers are back in the December Classic for the first time since the 2014 edition. Third-year coach Ann Dorris has six natives of Northern California on her roster.  Charlotte Carroll from Fortuna is the Pioneers' leading scorer with 9.1 points a game. Karli Mukai from San Jose averages 9.0 points and 2.7 assists.