RIVERSIDE, Calif. (Jan. 14, 2023) — UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball earned their first road win over UC Riverside since 2013 Saturday night, securing their best start to Big West Conference play in six seasons. The Gauchos tallied 24 points in the third quarter to erase a halftime deficit and went on to defeat the Highlanders, 64-60. Three players — Alexis Tucker, Alyssa Marin, and Ila Lane — scored double digits for the Gauchos.

HOW IT HAPPENED
UC Riverside (4-12, 2-4 Big West) had the hotter hands shooting the ball in the first quarter and earned an early 15-11 lead thanks to 3-4 shooting from behind the arc. Alyssa Marin hit the Gaucho's only three-ball in the opening frame. The Gauchos (11-4, 4-1 Big West) closed the gap to three points by halftime thanks to some good work inside; UCSB scored 10 of their 12 second-quarter points in the paint.

After trailing, 26-23, at the interval, the Santa Barbara offense got rolling out of halftime, besting their entire first-half output with 24 points in the third quarter alone. With 5:24 remaining in the quarter, Alexis Tucker hit a jumper and drew a foul, converting the and-one to give UCSB the lead for good. Tucker and Marin each finished with a team-high 12 points. Senior Ila Lane added 10 more, and freshman Skylar Burke tied her career high with nine. The fourth quarter was closely contested, but the Gauchos never lost the lead, with a couple late Riverside three-pointers bringing the Highlanders close but never level.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Freshman guard Skylar Burke enjoyed a career game, matching her career high in points (9), and setting new highs in minutes (26) and rebounds (8).
• Sophomore Callie Cooper was a thorn in the Highlanders' side all evening, racking up a game-high four steals without committing a single foul in a season-high 31 minutes off the bench. She tacked on four points, a pair of assists and a pair of rebounds
• It was a game of outside versus inside scoring; Riverside scored 24 points from three-pointers to the Gauchos' six, while Santa Barbara tallied 38 points in the paint to the Highlanders' 14. 

UP NEXT
The Gauchos return to Santa Barbara for their next game, welcoming the Big West leaders, UC Irvine, to the Thunderdome on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, January 16 at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live stats will be available at ucsbgauchos.com.