SANTA CRUZ, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Basketball team left northern California with a 68-57 win over UC Santa Cruz behind Jadyn Lee's 30-point performance on Saturday afternoon at the West Field House.
 
Season Impact: with the win, the Sagehens improved to 3-10 overall.
 
Jadyn Lee led the Sagehens with her new career-high of 30 points while Emily Lee had 14, Ali Bennett with 10, and Katie Drais came off of the bench with nine.
 
Santa Cruz actually outshot the Sagehens from the floor at 44.2% to the Sagehens' 34.5%, but Pomona-Pitzer did a lot of damage from the three-ball hitting on 7-22 for 31.8%. The Banana Slugs scored the majority of their baskets inside the paint with a 34-14 advantage, but the Sagehens played extraordinary defense holding Santa Cruz to under 20 points in every quarter. The Sagehens were also perfect from the free-throw line hitting on an incredible 23-23 from the stripe.
 
Pomona-Pitzer got ahead and stayed ahead early on to open the game with a 6-0 run.  Santa Cruz did come back with a run to take a 12-8 lead, but the Sagehens ended the first quarter with the final six points ending the quarter with a three by Drais to take a 14-12 lead into the second.
 
The Sagehens opened the second with back-to-back threes from Emily Lee and Drais to take a 20-12 lead early in the quarter. Pomona-Pitzer maintained its lead throughout the second quarter and held an eight-point advantage at 31-23 heading into halftime.
 
It was more of the same for the Sagehens in the second half as they continued to hold the lead over UC Santa Cruz.  The Sagehens took their largest lead of the game at 18 points after a pair of made free-throws by Lee put Pomona-Pitzer up 47-29.  The Banana Slugs responded late in the third quarter with a 9-0 run to cut the lead down to 47-38 heading into the fourth.
 
Pomona-Pitzer did a good job keeping UC Santa Cruz out of striking distance in the fourth quarter. The Sagehens kept a 10-point lead for the entire fourth quarter as they were able to close out UC Santa Cruz on the road and come away with a big non-conference victory.
 
Up Next: The Sagehens will next return home to host SCIAC opponent Redlands on Wednesday, January 10^th at 7:00 p.m.