It was only fitting that Monmouth’s two seniors from California played big roles in the final seconds of the Scots’ 59-57 win at UC-Santa Cruz Tuesday night.
The Scots led for the first 34 minutes of the game, but needed heroics from Becca Gallis (Kernville, Calif.) and Yvonne Ornelas Santa Ana, Calif.) to hold off the Banana Slugs. Knotted at 57-all with 2.1 seconds left in the game, Gallis hit a pull-up jumper in the lane to give the Scots a 59-57 lead. Following a timeout by UC-Santa Cruz, Ornelas intercepted the inbounds pass under the Slugs basket to clinch the Scots’ win with a half-second remaining.
Monmouth had raced out to a 21-8 first quarter lead and nursed the advantage until the Banana Slugs took their first lead of the game with 6:55 left in the fourth quarter. A Gallis 3-pointer two minutes later gave the Scots the lead for good, but never by more than a five-point margin in the final minutes.
Gallis finished with a game-high 23 points while Carley Turnbull added a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds. Ornelas added 10 boards and Jordan Kintigh matched Turnbull’s glass cleaning with 11. Not to be lost in the contest, sophomore Kaitlyn Osmulski set the Scots’ season and career consecutive free throw mark after a 3-for-3 effort from the line to give her 27 consecutive free throws on the season, breaking the mark of 25 straight set by Justine Boone during the 2009-10 season.
Monmouth meets No. 15 Transylvania University Wednesday night in Santa Cruz. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. CST.
