The University of Redlands women's basketball overcame a turnover-plagued first half to capture back-to-back wins for the first time this season with today's 63-53 victory over visiting UC Santa Cruz in Currier Gym.

Despite shooting 46.7% in the opening period, the Bulldogs struggled to pull away from a tenacious Banana Slug squad, which shot less than 30% but converted 13 points off of 14 Redlands turnovers.

However, a solid second-half effort provided the Maroon and Gray's largest lead of the game at 12 points while keeping Santa Cruz down by at least five through the final whistle.

Redlands recorded half as many turnovers in the second stanza.

Neither team mustered much of a lead in the first half but the Bulldogs eventually nabbed a two-point halftime advantage when senior forward Allison Clark (Altadena, CA) converted a lay-up off of a junior guard Mariah Barbetti-Cort (Ventura, CA) assist.

Redlands erupted with an 8-0 run to start the second half with Barbetti-Cort scoring the first basket and then providing two assists and two steals in the opening drives.

From here, the game was never in question for the Bulldogs.

Barbetti-Cort finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, just three away from a triple-double. Junior forward Courtney Carroll (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) went 5-for-10 for 14 points to go along with seven rebounds. Clark added 12 points and four rebounds.

Senior center Lydia Andrews served as Santa Cruz's only double-digit scorer by supplying 12 points to complement her eight rebounds. Freshman point guard Taylor Willis chipped in nine points as junior guard Alison Scarbrough and freshman forward Melody Barooni added eight apiece.

Redlands improves to 4-4 while the Banana Slugs drop to 3-8.

The Bulldogs look forward to a short holiday break before returning to action on Wed., Dec. 29 against Aurora University (IL) in Currier Gym at 5 p.m. The men also compete that night with a 7:30 p.m. showdown against Marietta College (OH).