CHENEY, Wash. —  The UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball team (7-5) ended Friday's game on a 7-0 run, but it was too little, too late as the Gauchos fell, 54-46, to Eastern Washington (4-8) in their non-conference finale. Skylar Burke led Santa Barbara with 11 points, while Alyssa Marin continued her streak of double-digit performances with 10.
 
FROM HEAD COACH RENEE JIMENEZ
"That was a disappointing loss for our team," Jimenez said. "We keep making some strides defensively and rebounding and then we take two steps backwards. We can't seem to put back-to-back games together and we need to figure that out quickly heading into Big West play.
 
"We have talked a lot this year about rebounding and how important it is for us with our lack of size, it's been the common thread in the games we have won.  Our secret is simple, when we rebound, we win."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The game started out fine, if just a little slow for the Gauchos, who led 13-9 after the first quarter. Burke and Laurel Rockwood were both strong on the glass, collecting eight rebounds between them in the first 10 minutes. They each added four points in the quarter. Burke scored hers on back-to-back possessions to give Santa Barbara their first lead of the night. Olivia Bradley added a couple points, then Jessica Grant drilled a three-pointer to extend the Gaucho lead to six, their largest of the night. After a couple EWU baskets, Rockwood scored the last basket of the frame to put Santa Barbara up by four at the buzzer.
 
However, after that it was nothing but coal in the Gauchos' stocking. After shooting 6-of-16 in the first quarter, Santa Barbara shot 10-of-44 from the floor over the final three quarters, going 1-of-17 from three-point range for the remainder of the evening. Tough shots weren't fall, but neither would the wide-open ones. Even though the Gauchos were perfect from the free-throw line, they only made it there 12 times in the game, their second-fewest trips to the stripe in a game this season.
 
The Eagles out-scored Santa Barbara 11-6 in the second quarter and 21-12 in the third, putting the Gauchos in a 10-point hole to start the fourth. Santa Barbara did finally see some more shots fall in the final quarter, shooting 5-of-16 in the frame and out-scoring EWU over the last 10 minutes of action. However, the margin was only two, not enough to overcome the deficit.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Skylar Burke finished one rebound shy of a double-double on Friday night, adding nine rebounds to her 11 points to lead the team in both categories.
• While Alyssa Marin did extend her streak of double-digit scoring to 11 games, she is still chasing her 1,000^th career point. With 10 on Friday night, the fifth-year Gaucho is now just three away from the milestone.
• Friday was the first game this season in which Santa Barbara shot perfect from the free-throw line, going 12-for-12 as a team, but those 12 attempts are the second-fewest the Gauchos have earned this year.

 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara will get a nearly two-week break for the holidays before returning to action in the new year. The Gauchos' next game is on Jan. 2, when they will host Hawai'i in the Thunderdome.