SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - The Lewis & Clark women's basketball team put together a solid second half effort on Sunday night at UC Santa Cruz, but it wasn't enough to make up for a sluggish first half by the Pioneers, allowing the Banana Slugs to pick up the 66-39 victory. 

The loss drops the Pioneers to 3-5 on the season, while the Banana Slugs improve to 9-3. 

Junior Sarah Anderson led the Pioneers with nine points, while Cianna Ochoco and Miyah Leith each finished with five points. Casey Zinn pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds for the Pioneers, while freshman Lauren Wood and junior Kaitlin Mathewson each collected four. Zinn also ended the night with two blocks and a steal. 

Leah Parrish led all players with 17 points for UC Santa Cruz, while also collecting a team-high seven boards. 

It was slow going for the Pioneers in opening half, which saw them go into the half trailing 39-12. Turnovers proved to be most detrimental to the Pios in the half with 17 of the teams 24 coming in the first period.

Anderson netted six of her points in the first half, including one at the 17:32 mark, which handed the Pios their only lead of the game.

Lewis & Clark regrouped on offense and defense in the second half, matching UC Santa Cruz point for point. Unfortunately the deficit was too large for the Pioneers to overcome. The second half saw the Pioneers take the ball away from the Banana Slugs eight times, while forcing 11 turnovers by their opponent. 

The Pioneers face-off against the 19th ranked team in the country, Calvin, at 3 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 22 in the teams final game of the UC-Santa Cruz Tournament.