SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – After erasing a 16-point deficit on Saturday afternoon against the University of California, Santa Cruz, the Pacific Lutheran University men's basketball team missed a shot at the buzzer to send the game to overtime and fell to the Banana Slugs 60-57. 
 
UCSC made its first five shots from the field and both of its free throws to take an early 12-4 lead just four minutes into the game.  The Slugs stretched the lead to 17-4 and 28-12 before the Lutes awoke from their slumber.  The visitors whittled the lead down to single digits on a Jordan Thomas layup with 1:19 left in the half and a jumper by Jacob Bingham cut the lead to seven after the first 20 minutes. 
 
The Santa Cruz lead ballooned back up to 12 with 16:01 remaining, but PLU put the clamps down defensively and held the home team to just three points over the next seven minutes and cut the lead to 40-37. 
 
Junior point guard Kelton Williams keyed the run with 13 straight points for PLU.  Williams led all scorers on Saturday with 17.  Trailing by seven late in the second half, Bingham hit back-to-back three pointers and a Conor Geiger jumper with two minutes left gave the Lutes their first lead of the ball game. 
 
UCSC scored the next four points to retake the lead, but PLU cut the edge back to one when Jordan Thomas scored a three-point play with seven seconds left.  After two more free throws by the Slugs, Williams fired a last-second heave that hit off the front of the rim as the buzzer sounded.
 
Thomas had a solid all-around game, with 11 points, eight rebounds, five assists and five blocks.  Bingham also had 11 points for the PLU attack, while Geiger snared eight boards to match Thomas for the team lead.  Following the game, Williams was named to the Tip-off Classic All-Tournament Team.  
 
The Lutes take next weekend off before traveling across town to the University of Puget Sound to play Chapman University on Friday, November 22 and Warner Pacific University the following day.