SANTA BARBARA, Calif. —  The UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball team (6-4, 1-1 Big West) returns to the Thunderdome for the final time in 2024 on Sunday afternoon, hosting Pacific (5-5, 1-0 WCC) in the Gauchos' final home non-conference game of the season.
 
UC Santa Barbara is holding a Toy Drive to benefit Toys for Tots this weekend. Fans who bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate on Sunday will receive a voucher for free tickets to the upcoming game against Hawai'i on Jan. 2.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos will be looking for a bounce-back performance after falling to UC Davis last Saturday, giving them a 1-1 record on the week. Alyssa Marin put up 29 points in Santa Barbara's win at UC San Diego last Thursday and added 12 against UC Davis on Saturday to stretch her double-digit streak to nine games. A big game on Sunday could put Marin into the 1,000-point club; she is just 29 away from the milestone. Also last week, Jessica Grant scored a season-high 14 points at UC San Diego on Thursday night and Kanani Coon put up a career-best 11 against UC Davis on Saturday. The Gauchos would love for those two to carry that scoring momentum into the rest of the season.
 
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Pacific (5-5, 1-0 WCC) will be looking for a bounce-back game of their own on Sunday after falling to California at home in their last game, 74-66. The loss snapped a two-game win streak for the Tigers, who out-lasted Oregon State for a 66-63 overtime win in their West Coast Conference opener last Thursday night.
 
Pacific's strengths are all about ball-handling: making sure they do it well and making sure their opponents do not. The Tigers lead the WCC and rank 30^th in the country with 17.4 assists per game on the offensive end and rank second in conference and 32^nd in the country in turnovers forced per game on the defensive end. Veteran guards Anaya James and Liz Smith lead both the assisting and stealing efforts for the Tigers, with James ranking 31^st nationally with 52 assists and Smith 44^th with 48. Both guards have 25 steals on the year, good for 43^rd in the country.
 
Down low, senior center Elizabeth Elliott is Pacific's leading scorer, averaging 13.3 points per game; she dropped a career-high 26 on Houston over Thanksgiving weekend and 19 on California in her last game. She also had a 19-point game in the Tigers' 81-65 win over Long Beach State earlier this season.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. from the Thunderdome on Sunday, with tickets on sale at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets. Fans can also follow along wherever they are by watching live on ESPN+ or with live stats, available on ucsbgauchos.com.