Santa Cruz, CA- For their final game before Thanksgiving break Menlo Men's Basketball made the drive down the coast to take on UC Santa Cruz inside of Kaiser Permanente Arena, the home of the NBA G-League Santa Cruz Warriors! It would be a wire to wire victory for the Oaks who scored the first six buckets and never looked back!

Lone Senior Comes Up Clutch

Senior guard Kaito Williams is the elder statesman for this Oak's team as their lone upcoming graduate. For the season Williams has scored in double figures seven times and tied his season high of 16 points against the Banana Slugs today. On a day where the three ball wasn't dropping for the Oaks, Williams was the lone bright spot from deep. For the game he knocked down three of six attempts behind the arc including arguably the biggest shot of the game. With the shot clock winding down and roughly a single minute left Williams isolated his defender on the left wing and hit a step back three to put the Oaks up by eight. In the final 60 seconds of the game Williams scored five points, grabbed two rebounds and blocked a three to seal the win. Along with his 16 points he chipped in six rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal.

Familiar Faces Do What They Do

While Williams put the game out of reach for the Banana Slugs, the dominant duo of Landon Seaman and Braydon Iuli asserted their will all game long. For the game the two combined for 43 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. Iuli has been handed the reins to coach Rooney's offense and has made sure the team hasn't skipped a beat. There were moments last year that hinted at his immense upside. Now fans of Menlo basketball are getting to see the New Zealand native unleashed. Thanks to another 17 point, five assists and five rebound outing the sophomore floor general is now averaging 16.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game. 

While Iuli runs the show from the perimeter, Landon Seaman has turned the low block into his personal playground. The Banana Slugs, like all of the Oaks opponents before them, did not have an answer for the big man. Seaman scored a game high 26 points to go along with a game high nine boards. Without a doubt the most impressive aspect of Seaman's hot start to this season has to be the efficiency with which he has been scoring. His 199 points so far this season have come on 65% shooting from the field. His 8-9 free throw shooting on the day was icing on the cake!

Up Next…

After a busy start to this season with nine games already played, the Oaks will enjoy the next few days off for Thanksgiving. Once they are back in action they will head down the road for a highly anticipated exhibition matchup with the NCAA Division I Santa Clara Broncos!