SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The UC Santa Barbara's Women's Basketball team returns to The Thunderdome this week for a pair of Big West home games. The Gauchos will host UC Riverside Highlanders on Thursday, February 12th, followed by a Saturday match up against the Cal Poly Mustangs on February 14th.
GAUCHO CHECK IN
Santa Barbara enters the week coming off of a 1-1 split. The Gauchos secured a strong 69-61 win over UC Davis before falling to UC Irvine, 63-41, and will be looking to regain momentum at home.
Against the Aggies, Zoe Shaw delivered a breakout performance, pouring in a career-high 29 points while knocking down seven three-pointers. Zoe Borter didn't go unnoticed either, contributing 14 points and helping power the Gauchos to the win. Against UC Irvine, Júlia Puente-Valverde led the effort with 10 rebounds, while Borter and Olivia Bradley helped out by scoring a series of layups in the match.
Borter continues to be a consistent leader for Santa Barbara, totaling 319 points and 41 made three-pointers this season. Bradley is close behind with 301 points, while Shaw has added 48 made threes of her own.
SCOUTING UC RIVERSIDE
UC Riverside enters the week on a two-game skid after losses to CSUF and CSUN, but the Highlanders remain threats behind strong individual performances.
Hannah Wickstrom leads the team with 466 points on the season and averages a team-high 23.3 points per game, Seneca Hackley recently reached the 1,000-point milestone against CSUN and averages just under 10 points per game, while also leading the team with 112 defensive rebounds
The Highlanders are 7-16 overall and 5-8 in conference. Santa Barbara holds a 4-6 all-time record against Riverside, though the Gauchos have dropped the last three meetings and will look to reverse that trend come Thursday night.
SCOPING SLO
Cal Poly heads to The Thunderdome in the midst of a nine-game losing streak, with recent close losses to CSUN and UC Davis. Freshman Charish Thompson has been a bright spot, scoring 18 points with seven rebounds against CSUN before recording her fifth 20-point performance of the season against UC Davis.
The Mustangs are 3-20 overall and 1-12 in conference play, Santa Barbara leads the all-time series 28-23 and has gone 6-4 over the last 10 meetings.
