IRVINE, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball team (16-11, 10-7 Big West) plays their final game of the regular season on Saturday, traveling to face UC Irvine (20-9, 14-5) with a first-round bye in The Big West Championship still on the table. With a win over the Anteaters, the Gauchos would not only complete their first regular-season sweep of UC Irvine since the 2019-2020 season but could also climb as high as the No. 3 seed, if UC Davis beats UC San Diego. Even without help from the Aggies, Santa Barbara is guaranteed at least the No. 4 seed and a first-round bye with a win on Saturday. With a loss, the lowest the Gauchos could finish is the No. 6 seed, if UC Riverside beats Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State loses at Cal Poly.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UC Santa Barbara enters the week on their longest winning streak of the season, four games, thanks to a road win at Cal Poly last Thursday and a Senior Day win over CSUN last Saturday. Alyssa Marin and Laurel Rockwood had great Senior Day performances last Saturday, with Marin scoring a game-high 23 points and Rockwood pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds to match her career high. Last Thursday in San Luis Obispo, it was a balanced Gaucho attack that handled the Mustangs, with Zoe Borter, Skylar Burke, Anya Choice and Olivia Bradley each scoring in double digits.
 
SCOUTING THE ANTEATERS
UC Irvine wrapped up the No. 2 seed in The Big West Championship with a win over UC Davis on Thursday night, needing a 9-0 run and last-second winner to do it. The 55-53 win was their 20^th of the season and their fourth in the six games since the Gauchos last saw them.
 
Irvine continues to be a defense-first team, holding all but one of their last six opponents under 60 points. The only team to crack 60 was Long Beach State, who dropped 73 points on their rivals. On the season, the Anteaters rank 11^th in the nation for scoring defense, allowing an average of 54.1 points per game, and sixth in field goal percentage defense, with opponents shooting just 35.3% from the floor against them. The Anteaters also limit turnovers while forcing plenty to generate a +4.2 turnover margin, putting them among the top 50 teams in the country in that category. If there is a weak point for the Gauchos to exploit, it is at the other end of the floor, where the Anteaters rank 278^th out of 353 Division I teams in scoring offense, averaging just 60.1 points per game.
 
When Irvine visited the Thunderdome in February, their top two scorers, Hunter Hernandez and Deja Lee, put up 15 and 16 points respectively, but the Gauchos shut down their supporting cast. Summah Hanson, who averages 8.8 points off the bench for the Anteaters this year, went scoreless in the game and the entire Irvine bench combined for just eight points.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. from Irvine's Bren Events Center, with the game set to be televised on Spectrum SportsNet. Live stats will also be available at ucsbgauchos.com/WBBLiveStats.