SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball team (10-8, 4-4 Big West) spent the third quarter of Thursday night's game fighting back to head into the fourth quarter tied with UC San Diego (9-11, 5-3 Big West), only to have their worst shooting quarter of the game while the visiting Tritons had their best, handing the Gauchos a 62-43 defeat. Alyssa Marin, Jessica Grant and Cayla Williams were the only Gauchos to make three or more field goals all night, finishing with 13, 11 and seven points respectively.
 
FROM HEAD COACH RENEE JIMENEZ
"I feel like when we can sucker-punch the big guy, we're really good, but when people come in and they're like 'alright, let's go toe-to-toe,' we kind of don't want anything to do with that. We have to decide we want to fight," Jimenez said. "I think we let the missed shot affect us defensively in the fourth quarter, and that rattled us. We made 15 shots tonight. The name of the game is basketball, the ball's got to go in the basket. We've got to take shots to make shots and tonight I felt like we took shots because we were open."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Both teams started fast, trading buckets in the early going. UC San Diego sank a handful of twos, but the Gauchos answered back with threes from Grant and Williams. The Tritons then hit their first three of the night, but Marin answered back with a jumper over her own and at the first media timeout, the Gauchos trailed by just one, 9-8. However, out of the timeout, Santa Barbara went cold. After making three of their first four shots and two of three from beyond the arc, the Gauchos went 1-of-9 for the remainder of the quarter, with Kanani Coon's three-pointer the only make, though thanks to Santa Barbara's defense the Canadian's make pulled the Gauchos within three. The visitors sank another three-pointer before the end of the frame, a second make on just three shots from downtown, to lead 17-11 at the first break.
 
The second quarter was not good for either team, as each side shot 3-of-13 from the field in the period. UC San Diego made the only three pointer of the quarter despite the teams launching five attempts each, while Santa Barbara made two free throws to claw back one point in the aggregate, out-scoring the Tritons 8-7 in the quarter. At halftime, the score was 24-19 in favor of the visitors.
 
After the break, the Gauchos had their best stretch of the night, erasing their deficit and edging into the lead. Marin knocked down a three-pointer for the first basket of the half, drawing a foul and converting the four-point play to bring the Gauchos within a point. After a defensive stop, Zoe Borter's basket put Santa Barbara ahead by one and kicked off a back-and-forth battle that lasted the rest of the quarter, with neither team leading by more than five. The Tritons held that lead with just under two minutes to play in the frame, but another basket by Borter and a three-pointer from Grant wiped that lead out and sent the teams into the final quarter tied at 34.
 
The Gauchos shot 3-of-13 again in that fourth quarter, while the Tritons shot 7-of-14 from the field and 11-of-14 from the free-throw line, and that was more than enough to decide the game.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• The Gauchos' 15 made field goals are their fewest in a home game this season; the only time they made fewer was on the road at San Francisco (11).
• After being held under 10 free-throw attempts for the first time all season against Cal Poly on Jan. 11, the Gauchos have now been limited to single-digit trips to the charity stripe in three of their last four games, going 7-of-9 from the line on Thursday.

 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara will look to bounce back on Saturday, when they welcome Cal State Fullerton to the Thunderdome. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m., with the game also being broadcast on ESPN+ and with live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com/WBBLiveStats.