UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball team (14-10, 8-6 Big West) earned a crucial 62-52 win over UC Irvine (16-7, 10-3 Big West) on Thursday night, and it was a full team performance. The Gauchos' veteran duo of Alyssa Marin and Anya Choice led the way on offense with 18 and 15 points respectively, but there were players to highlight up and down Santa Barbara's roster. Skylar Burke added 12 points of her own, while Olivia Bradley, Laurel Rockwood, Kanani Coon and Jessica Grant sparked a crucial third-quarter scoring run that turned the tide back in the Gauchos' favor.
FROM HEAD COACH RENEE JIMENEZ"I will say, my goal this year was to get all the guys at the top at least once," Jimenez said. "Because I think what that does for us is it really sets us up nicely going into the conference tournament, where we're not trying to slay a giant that we haven't slayed before. For me, personally, as their coach, this was a goal of mine for them. If we can get the four 'big guys' at the top, Davis, Long Beach, Hawai'i, Irvine, then we'll have a lot of confidence going into the conference tournament. We won't worry about who we're playing, we'll know we have played well with them. And we beat them all pretty good, but the secret sauce for us tonight, hopefully, was just the confidence.
"I have to give a really big complement to [Olivia Bradley], Laurel (Rockwood), [Alyssa Marin], Kanani (Coon) and Jess (Grant). That group of five came in and got us that six, seven-point lead, and that was the turning point in the game for us. The one thing we've been asking all of these guys is stay engaged, you don't know when you're turn is going to be and how important your turn is going to be. I felt like out of halftime we were slow and sluggish, and our legs felt heavy and tired and we just needed something different. That group came in and they were ready to go, and they were engaged and that's all you can ask. What it did was it took some pressure off of our starting group and allowed them to play free."
"I will say this about Anya tonight, I challenged Anya to try to do something different than score. That was a big challenge that I made to Anya this week, let's not have zeroes across our statline, like, let's get some salt and pepper on this paper and try to get some rebounds and assists and a steal, so she did other things that helped us win and the offense was a byproduct of that. I thought you saw, because she was doing so well defensively and rebounding, it really allowed her to play with freedom and with confidence. This is the Anya her and I have been waiting for."
HOW IT HAPPENEDThe Gauchos got themselves going with an early barrage of three-pointers, shooting 80% (4-of-5) from deep in the first quarter. Burke and Marin went back-to-back to give Santa Barbara a quick 6-0 lead, but the Anteaters cut that in half with a three of their own. A stop-on-a-dime pull-up jumper from Choice kept the Gauchos' momentum rolling, and Zoe Borter hit a three to get Santa Barbara back in front by six, 11-5. Irvine would eventually tie the game at 13-13 and then take an 18-13 lead late in the quarter, but the Gauchos rallied back. Rockwood made a basket down low, then Grant swatted an Anteater three-point attempt with seven seconds left. The Gauchos hustled down the floor and got Choice the ball in the corner, where she buried a buzzer-beating three-pointer to tie the game at 18-18.
For the entire second quarter, it was a one-possession game. The Gauchos took a 22-20 lead early in the frame after some zippy passing led to a layup for Rockwood, and they had a chance to go up by three points late thanks to Marin. Right as the clock ticket under two minutes, she drove the lane and finished a layup while drawing a foul for the potential three-point play. In a rare occurrence, she missed the free throw, so the Gauchos were up just 30-28. Irvine would get two late baskets and go into halftime ahead, 33-30.
Santa Barbara did come out of the half slow, though the Anteaters did not exactly come out much quicker. Over the first four minutes, there were only two baskets scored, and both were by the visitors, giving them a 37-30 lead. But then, the momentum started to turn. Grant hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to four, then Burke drew and drained a pair of free throws to make it a one-possession issue. After the media timeout, Cayla Williams wove her way through the Anteater defense for a game-tying layup, then drilled a three-pointer a minute later to put Santa Barbara up, 40-37. Layups from Marin and Bradley extended that lead to 44-37, then Marin knocked down a pair of free throws to make it 46-37, a 16-0 run for the Gauchos. The Anteaters would eventually stop the run with a three-pointer, but Santa Barbara kept their 46-40 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
In the final frame, the Gauchos never led by less than two possessions, and at the start of the quarter it looked like they were going to simply run away with the game. Choice scored on her team's first possession, then Marin knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to make the score 54-40 in favor of the home team. The Anteaters, who had shot just 1-of-9 from three-point range in the fourth quarter, finally saw another three fall to cut into their deficit and, with the help of their characteristically smothering defense and some free throws, slowly started clawing back into the game. The visitors made things dicey with a minute and 19 seconds left, hitting a three-pointer to make it a five-point game, but the Gauchos broke the Irvine press with Choice's long inbounds pass finding Burke running all alone down the court like a football receiver on a busted coverage. That made it a seven-point game, and after the Anteaters missed their next shot, they had to foul. They sent Choice to the line twice, and she was a perfect 2-for-2 both times, putting the game to bed.
FROM THE STUDENT ATHLETESAlyssa Marin on dealing with her recent dip in scoring: "It was really frustrating and I talked a lot with coach right before this game and she has put all the confidence in me no matter what," Marin said. "I mean, you wouldn't think that I'd been having the games I've been having, the way coach has been talking to me, the way she's been telling me to keep on shooting and all the confidence my teammates have given me to keep on shooting and continue to be confident in my shot. Letting that flow and being able to feed off of everyone else's energy has been really big for me."
Anya Choice on building on Thursday's performance: "I just have to keep the same level of aggression. Me and coach have been talking about it a lot, but like 'Lyss said, you would think that I was playing great, the conversations I have with my coaches and teammates. They instill so much confidence in me. And bouncing off that, using this game as fuel and talking to my coaches and my teammates."
Choice on her first-quarter buzzer beater and confidence: "It definitely felt really good, but like coach was saying I think what relaxed me the most was the other things I was doing, like the rebounds. I dove on the floor for two or three loose balls, that helped a lot, so like she said, filling up the stat sheet in other categories, it helps me with my confidence on offense."
BY THE NUMBERSAnya Choice's 15 points on Thursday night are a season high and her career high against the Anteaters, whom she had previously never scored double digits against.Facing a UC Irvine defense that came in holding opponents to an average three-point percentage under 30%, the Gauchos defied expectations and shot 44.4% (8-of-18) from beyond the arc on Thursday.In the pivotal third quarter, the Santa Barbara defense held UC Irvine to just 3-of-15 shooting from the field and 1-of-9 shooting from three-point range. They did this all without sending the Anteaters to the free throw line once in the quarter.
UP NEXTThe Gauchos will remain at home on Saturday, hosting a UC Riverside team fresh off an upset victory of their own over UC Davis. Saturday is also Santa Barbara's National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration. The Gaucho coaches and players will be holding a meet-and-greet session after the game. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. from the Thunderdome, and all of the action will be live on ESPN+ with live stats at ucsbgauchos.com/WBBLiveStats.
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics).
Gauchos score a big home win over UC Irvine News Channel 3-12.
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