SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball team currently sits atop The Big West standings, holding a half-game lead over Hawai'i as they enter week four of conference play. This week the Gauchos will host CSUN on Thursday, Jan. 18 before traveling to Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, Jan. 20.
LAST TIME OUT
Last week the Gauchos picked up two road wins. On Thursday, Jan. 11 UC Santa Barbara defeated Cal State Bakersfield 75-54 and then on Saturday traveled down to Long Beach State and pulled out a 69-56 win over the Beach. In the game, Alyssa Marin scored a career-high 25 points to help the Gauchos survive a late fourth-quarter run by LBSU.
MANAGING THE MATADORS
After winning their first two games of the season, CSUN has dropped their last 13 and come into the contest 2-13 overall and 0-5 in Big West play. The Matadors defeated Utah State and Seattle to open up the season.
CSUN comes into the game averaging 54.7 points per game and shoot the ball at a .337 clip. Both stats rank in the bottom 50 of Division I. Although they turn the ball over quite a bit too, they also force 17.1 turnovers a game and record 8.9 steals on the defensive end.
True freshman Amiyah Ferguson leads CSUN in scoring with 143 points over 15 games coming out to 9.5 points per game. She also grabs 2.5 rebounds and dishes out 2.8 assists per game. Erica Adams sits just behind Ferguson scoring 9.3 points per game. She also averages 2.3 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game.
TACKLING THE TITANS
Before taking on the Gauchos, Cal State Fullerton will play UC Davis on Thursday in Davis, Calif. The Titans enter with a 6-9 overall record and a 2-3 record in The Big West. In Big West action, Fullerton has beat Long Beach State and CSUN but has fallen to Hawai'i, UC Irvine and UC San Diego.
As a team, the Titans are averaging just under 60 points per game shooting the ball at a .380 clip and .310 from three-point range. From the free-throw line, Cal State Fullerton ranks 33rd shooting the ball just under 80 percent from the charity stripe.
Individually, Gabi Vidmar is one of two Titan athletes to average in double-figures so far this season. Vidmar posts 12.6 points per game while grabbing 4.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists. Hope Hassmann is the other Titan that averages in double-figures scoring just over 10 per contest. Hassmann leads the team in assists per game dishing out nearly three a game.
FOLLOW ALONG
The Gauchos and Matadors will tipoff on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. in The Thunderdome. UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball will welcome Faculty and Staff from around the UC Santa Barbara campus for their Faculty and Staff appreciation night.
On Saturday, the Gauchos will travel to Cal State Fullerton to wrap up their week of competition. The game is scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m. in Titan Gym. For those unable to make the games in person, the contests will be streamed through ESPN+ with live stats also available.
