Box Score The Hamline women's basketball team won the battle of the boards Saturday against UC Santa Cruz at the d3hoops.com Classic in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the Banana Slugs were red hot from the field and defeated the Pipers, 71-51, in the final game on the 2017 portion of the schedule. 

Reilly Geistfeld had her second best scoring effort of the season -- 15 points and had a game high eight rebounds while Alaina Quaranta added a dozen points and seven boards as HU dropped to 2-9 overall. Geistfeld, a sophomore forward from St. James, Minn. who had scored a dozen points the day before against Occidental, was named to the all-tournament team. 

Despite the 10:00 a.m. local starting time, the Pipers came out wide awake and sharp, grabbing a 15-9 lead after a quarter. The Banana Slugs, an independent, came back to take a 32-28 halftime edge and used some three-point markmanship (9-for-14 in the second half) to pull away in the late stages of the game. In addition to Geistfeld and Quaranta, Aly Sartain had six rebounds and Jaelin Jones pilfered three steals in just nine minutes of playing time for the Pipers. 

Hamline, who are 1-3 against conference foes, now turns its focus to MIAC play. The Pipers host Augsburg (6-4, 2-2 MIAC) at Hutton Arena on Wednesday, January 3. Game time is 7:00 p.m.