Box Score SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – In its fifth game of the Big West Conference season, the UC Santa Barbara women's basketball team lost to UC Davis 56-46 on Thursday night at the Thunderdome.
Redshirt senior guard Coco Miller and junior point guard Danae Miller each totaled 18 points with freshman center Ila Lane also reaching double-digits as she completed her league-high 11th double-double of the season.
The first quarter began as an even matchup with the Gauchos and Aggies battling it out with UCSB holding the lead throughout the first five minutes of the game. UC Davis gained the lead at the 4:33 mark after Campbell Gray hit a jumper, and they maintained that lead through to the end of the opening frame, leading 13-9.
UC Davis kept it up in the second quarter, staying ahead despite UCSB's best efforts to take the lead. Twice, the Gauchos got within one of the Aggies, first with a Danae Miller turnover, and then when Ila Lane put away a second-chance layup off the glass.
Ultimately, Davis took a five-point lead into the break, up 26-21 after a last-second jumper by Katie Toole.
A Tal Sahar layup gave the Gauchos the first points of the second half, but it served as a precursor to an 11-0 run by UC Davis, its longest of the night, that gave the Aggies a 14-point lead to go ahead 37-23, and that would grow to a 42-28 lead by the end of the quarter.
Needing to inject some life into the game, the Gauchos began the final quarter with their longest scoring run of the game. Danae Miller pushed the Gauchos up to the 30-point mark with a pair of free throws and Coco Miller followed by scoring back-to-back three-pointers to bridge the gap to six points. However, the visitors responded with a six-point run and kept their lead intact throughout the rest of the night.
This Saturday, the Gauchos take on Fullerton in Titan Gym in a rematch of the conference season-opening game between the two that took place on January 9. The game will be streamed on BigWest.TV and a live audio broadcast will be available on UCSBGauchos.com with Sports Information Director Arthur Wilkie on play-by-play. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m.
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