SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball team (14-11, 8-7 Big West) continues their stretch run this week, with just five games left in the regular season. The Gauchos play their penultimate home game on Saturday, hosting Long Beach State (12-11, 8-6 Big West), but not before they pay a visit to Cal State Fullerton (7-18, 5-10 Big West) on Thursday night. Santa Barbara will be looking to avenge a home loss against the Titans when they head to Orange County, and they have the chance to secure a season sweep of the Beach in the Thunderdome on Saturday.
 
Saturday is also UC Santa Barbara's Pink Game, as part of The Big West's Tough Like Tammy campaign. The Tough Like Tammy campaign aims, in conjunction with the Kay Yow Cancer Fund to raise money toward research in not just breast cancer, but all cancers affecting women.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos split their two home games last week, defeating UC Irvine, 62-52, on Thursday but falling to UC Riverside, 51-42. Santa Barbara's scoring leader, Alyssa Marin, got back on song, averaging 16.5 points across the two games, with 18 in the win over Irvine. Anya Choice put in a stellar performance against the Anteaters on Thursday too, scoring a season-high 15 points. Olivia Bradley added 12 off the bench on Saturday against the Highlanders.
 
SCOUTING THE TITANS
After starting the year 2-16, with neither of those wins coming against Division I opposition, Cal State Fullerton has now won five of their last seven games, including a 64-61 victory at the Thunderdome at the end of January. They completed a season sweep of Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday with a 78-68 win in their home gym, the most points they have scored against a D-I team this season.
 
Jana Falsdottir and Aaliyah Stanton each scored 18 points against the Roadrunners, a career high for the former and just above average for the latter. Stanton is the Titans' leader in scoring, averaging 14.7 points per game, and she scored 19 the first time she saw the Gauchos this season. The 5-foot-3 Stanton excels at getting to and converting from the free-throw line, ranking second in the conference in free throw attempts (140) and third in free throws made (100). Her teammate Emily Strachan ranks second in The Big West in free-throw percentage (79.1), behind only UC Santa Barbara's Alyssa Marin. Strachan was one of three Titans other than Stanton who scored 10 points in the first meeting, the others being Aixchel Hernandez and Eva Livingston, who lead the Titans inside. Hernandez ranks second in the conference in blocks, averaging 1.91 a game, while Livingston is The Big West's leading rebounder, averaging 8.4 boards per contest.
 
Despite their recent uptick in form, the Titans are still shooting 37.4% from the field as a team and averaging 60.2 points per game, while their opponents average 40% field goal shooting and 62.9 points per game. And even with Hernandez and Livingston inside, the Titans are still the worst rebounding team in The Big West, averaging 34.12 boards a game and owning a -5.8 rebound margin.
 
SCOUTING THE BEACH
Long Beach State's loss to the Gauchos on the first of the month was their third loss in a row, and their fortunes have not changed much in the short time since. Following that defeat, the Beach have won just once, albeit a big one over CSUN, 88-65. Most recently, they fell to Hawai'i, 72-65, on Feb. 13. They will host an in-form UC Riverside team this Thursday before visiting the Gauchos.
 
Savannah Tucker played every minute when Santa Barbara visited Long Beach and did score 27 points, but that was nearly 40% of her entire team's scoring output on the day. On average, The Big West's leading scorer only accounts for 25% of the points for The Big West's top scoring offense. If the Gauchos can keep Tucker's sidekicks cold again, on Saturday, they could complete the season sweep. And cold was exactly what the Beach were at the free throw line in the last meeting, making just 11 of their 22 attempts from the charity stripe. A repeat of that performance would be disastrous for the team who shoots more free throws than anyone in The Big West but makes the third-lowest percentage of them, just 68.3.
 
The Gauchos will have to be strong on the boards on Saturday, especially since their first win over the Beach came in spite of being out-rebounded. Long Beach State grabs more rebounds than anyone in the conference, averaging 42.7 per game, though they are not necessarily dominant on the glass, out-rebounding opponents by just 0.5 boards on average. One thing that helped the Gauchos on the offensive glass the last time they met the Beach was simply not needing to grab o-boards; Santa Barbara shot 43.1% from the field in the last meeting between these teams, nearly five points above their average.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
The Gauchos and Titans will tip off at 7 p.m. from Titan Gym in Fullerton, with tip off against the Beach set for 4 p.m. on Saturday in the Thunderdome. Both games will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com/WBBLiveStats.