PASADENA, Calif. – The Caltech men's basketball team returned home to Braun Gymnasium to host the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs on Sunday afternoon, staging an impressive rally in the second half that saw the visitors' 17-point lead shrink to just a single point in the waning minutes.

"I'm proud of the progress we made over the week," said Head Coach Dr. Oliver Eslinger. "We're a very young team and there's a lot to learn and a lot to focus on. They were really focused coming into the game, and it was nice to see the work translate to the competition."

Fueling the effort was first-year guard Chase Williamson (McDonough, Ga. / Union Grove) who led both teams in scoring with 26 points, further picking up 10 rebounds for his first collegiate double-double and career highs in both stats.

The two teams traded buckets to start the game, with Caltech's Josh Balami (Woodbury, Minn. / Math and Science Academy) and Ryan Hu (Bellevue, Wash. / Newport) each replying to the Banana Slugs' opening two scores with mid-range jumpers. UC Santa Cruz stormed ahead but Noah Hicks (Oxford, Ga. / George Walton Academy) kept the game within reach with five points by way of two free throws and a three-pointer.

The Slugs led by 10 at the half and quickly racked up the first seven points of the second half in just over two minutes, but Caltech came back with an 11-2 run to pull back within eight. The guests held on and extended their lead to 67-56 with just over six minutes to go, when the Beavers staged another 11-2 run with points from Balami, Stuart Florescu (Toronto, Ont. / Crescent School) and Hicks. The surge made it one-point game, the Northern California rivals leading 68-67 at the 3:22 mark.

Coach Eslinger acknowledged Caltech's free throw and field goal shooting in the second half — 93.8% and 46.2%, respectively — crediting the success to the players' better decision-making within their system. "We got down there early in the second half, and there was progression there," he said. "You saw our mental resilience and we fought back by playing good basketball. It started on the defensive side with getting a bunch of stops, so we were in much better spirits with our competitive fire."

Next up for the Beavers is another afternoon home game on Tuesday at 2 p.m., this time facing the Westminster College (Mo.) Blue Jays.