SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The UC Santa Barbara women's basketball team put together a late rally, but the opposition held as the Gauchos were defeated by Pacific, 63-53, on Thursday night at the Thunderdome.

A layup and jumper by Pacific's Lianna Tillman in the final minute of the first quarter gave the visiting Tigers the lead after one, 17-14.

Both teams mustered just seven points apiece in the second quarter. The Gauchos had tied things up through freshman center Ila Lane's efforts off the glass with 4:18 remaining in the second quarter, but Pacific would keep the Gauchos scoreless through the rest of the period and regain the lead to make it 24-21 at the half.

Pacific extended its lead throughout the third quarter, led by leading scorer Brooklyn McDavid's eight points and supplemented by Kaylin Randhawa and Valerie Higgins' five points apiece.

Down by 12 entering the fourth quarter, the Gauchos were looking for a spark.

They got it on one of their first possessions of the final period, when redshirt senior guard Coco Miller sank a three-pointer with 9:27 to go to cut the Tigers' lead to nine.

Then, freshman guard RyAnne Walters brought the gap down to seven points with a driving layup with 8:47 left in regulation.

Coco Miller completed an 8-0 run with a triple to make the score 44-40 to Pacific, forcing the Tigers to call timeout.

With her make, she became the 27th member of the thousand-point club.

Pacific fixed things immediately out of the timeout, as Callie Kaiser scored on both of the Tigers' possessions after the break to get them ahead 49-40.

Later in the quarter, Santa Barbara went on another run, with junior guard Danae Miller and redshirt senior guard Tal Sahar each connecting from deep to get the Gauchos back within one possession, trailing 53-50 with under three minutes left.

The comeback came ever closer to completion thanks to another Sahar trey to answer a pull-up jumper from McDavid that had put Pacific back up by 5.

However, the Tigers made the most of their chances at the free throw line and UCSB couldn't come up with makes down the stretch as Pacific closed the game out, winning 63-53.

Sahar reached the century mark in career assists with four in tonight's game.

"Some defensive effort and hustle and momentum plays got us back in it. But it's the same thing- we can't turn the ball over in the second half of games. We still have to manufacture some offense in transition," said head coach Bonnie Henrickson after the game to the "Voice of the Gauchos" Gerry Fall.

The Gauchos take a break before playing future Big West opponents CSU Bakersfield away on Dec. 14.

Season tickets for the 2019-20 season are still available. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here, visiting the ticket office, or by calling (805) 893-UCSB.

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