Posted: Feb 17, 2018
Bethesda Flames Finish Strong
SANTA CRUZ - Friday's game was heated as the Bethesda Flames women's basketball team went head to head against the UC Santa Cruz Slugs with an attendance of 142 in the Kaiser Permanente Arena. The crowd was completely entertained throughout the entire game as the Slugs largest lead only lasted 5:00 minutes. The Slugs, however, pulled out a thrilling 63-62 win.
Bethesda University Flames started the first period with a 15-14 lead with Bethesda player Victoria Stewart scoring most of the points along with Taylor Smalley, though the score was brought up considerably by Kim Tom's field goals and Alaina Alvarez's free throws and jump-shots. The second period began with a Bethesda lead of 22-21, but this soon changed when CJ Catina made two free throws bringing the score to 22-23 for UCSC. Slugs finished the first half of the game with a lead of 33-25.
The second half became intense as both teams were evenly matched as Bethesda quickly caught up within the third outscoring the Slugs 20-16. The final ten minutes of the game was the most exciting as all 142 persons in attendance waited to see if the score of 61-60 could be broken.
Bethesda scored off an inbounds pass with 0.3 seconds left. That looked to be the end when in the last couple of moments, Bethesda's Smalley committed a foul with 0.1 seconds left, resulting in an excited uproar from Slug fans as Tom made two successful free throws, ending the game with a Slug victory of 63-62!
The Flames played with only 6 players to UCSC's 10 player roster. Four of the six players finished in double figures. Junior guard, Angela Steel, led in scoring with 21 points and 5 blocks. Victoria Stewart followed with 16 points, Laura Tapia finished with 11 and Senior Taylor Smalley topped it off with almost a double-double: 10 points, 8 assist. The Flames finished with a season high 13 assists and 6 blocks.