Saint Joseph's College men's basketball returned to the snowy shores of Sebago Lake from sunny California with two more games in the win column after completing a sweep of their two "left coast" opponents, UC Santa Cruz and Colorado College at UCSC's "Slugjam '06."

After recovering from their 14-hour travel day on 1/1/06, the Monks rallied to take on the University of California at Santa Cruz Banana Slugs on Wednesday, January 4th at 7 p.m. on their home turf. The game was played in a gym reminiscent of our old "Chamber of Horrors."

Saint Joseph's had the opportunity to watch the Slugs play against the Colorado College Tigers the day before and took advantage of several mistakes by the Slugs to come from 10 points down in the first half, eventually handing the Slugs a 67-76 loss.

The Slugs opened the game pressing St. Joe's and causing numerous turnovers to take a first half lead. Saint Joe's shot a disappointing 29.6% in the first half with 19 turnovers. The Slugs were up by 10 points with 3:11 left in the first half until the Monks went on a run with 1:43 left to play, sparked by a jumper by junior Marcus Alexander (Niceville, FL), which eventually cut the Slugs' lead down to three as the teams headed into the locker rooms.

The second half was a different story as St. Joe's came out and put it to the out-of-sync Slugs, scoring 53 points to take the lead and put the Slugs away for good. The Monks shot 72.4% in round two and were up by as many as 16 with 2:58 left in the game.

The Slugs were led in scoring by Murphy Holmes and Jon Miller with 14 points each and DIII Independents Player of the Week Jimmy Herrera with 12 points.

Saint Joseph's had four players in double figures: Marcus Alexander (15), Chad Pulkkinen (12), newcomer Elbie Murphy (11) and Matt Plummer (10).

The Monks went on to face Colorado College at UC Santa Cruz on Sunday, January 8th at 1 p.m.

The Monks took control early in the game paced by Chad Pulkkinen's smooth hand - Pulkkinen was 3-for-4 from the 3-point line for the first half, netting a total of 11 points - and Matt Plummer's perfect shooting (3-3 FG, 2-2 FT), good for 8 points.

St. Joe's got into foul trouble early though, and starters Marcus Alexander and Noah LaRoche spent more time on the bench than they usually do. While the Monks led by 8 at the half, 33-25, they carried 8 total fouls into the locker room with them.

A scrappy Tiger team was not to be taken down easily, however, and came back after the break with a new determination, cutting the Monks' lead, which had hovered around the 8-point mark for the first 15 minutes of play, down to 1 with 5:01 on the clock. CC went on to tie it up twice before the Monks regrouped and went ahead for good, winning by 8, 67-59, when the final horn sounded.

Chad Pulkkinen led the Monks and all scorers with 18, followed by Adam Mares of Colorado College with 17. Matt Plummer had 12 points for St. Joe's, Elbie Murphy and Marcus Alexander each chipped in 9 and Noah LaRoche had 7 points and 3 assists.

In addition to Mares, the Tigers had two other players in double figures, Nate Brodman with 12 and Kyle Keefe with 10.

The Monks' record now stands at 7-4 and they have won 6 of their last 7 games.

The team returns to the familiar confines of the Alfond Gym to play in a doubleheader with the women's team on January 15th vs. Maine Maritime Academy. The women tip off at 1 p.m. followed by the men at 3 p.m.