The UCSB women’s basketball team polished off its longest homestand of the year with a bruising 76-54 thumping of Pacific on Saturday afternoon that made it nine straight for the Gauchos.
It matched the largest margin of victory for UCSB this season, and the first-place Gauchos were enjoying every last second of it leading up to the buzzer
“Definitely not a perfect game, but I thought it was our best performance tip to buzzer,” noted head coach Linsday Gottlieb, who has yet to lose a Big West Conference game at 7-0, 12-6 overall. “The reason I say that is that we had an answer to everything.”
UCSB opened up a hefty 43-24 halftime lead, and – even though the Tigers made it a 14-point game at the 12-minute mark of the second half – kept the margin around 20 points for most of the second half.
The referees blew their whistles 51 times for foul calls during the game – 30 in the second half. The Tigers were responsible for 31 of those and the Gauchos found themselves at the free-throw line 37 times where they made 28.
Amber Simmons – the conference’s leading scorer – was held to a season-low six points before she fouled out with 11 minutes still to play while trying to defend Jenna Green on the post.
“I love challenges – defensive challenges,” said Green, who scored a game-high 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting but was focusing more on the defensive side of the court. “I know everyone keeps talking about scoring and that sort of thing but I’m definitely more of a defensive minded person. It’s fun for me.”
It doesn’t go overlooked by Gottlieb.
“I said on the radio, if there’s a better defensive presence in the conference I don’t know who it is,” said Gottlieb, who happens to have last year’s Big West Conference defensive player of the year Whitney Warren in her starting lineup.
“When you’re doing well on that end of the court, things just happen on the offensive end,” said junior Jordan Franey after her fifth-straight game scoring in double figures.
The forward scored 12 points and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds – all on the defensive end. Franey also knocked down 6-of-7 free throws, making it on 30 of her last 33 attempts.
“Jordan is such a versatile scorer, I mean, the kid can really score,” observed Gottlieb. “That’s all I need to say to her is ‘focus on defensive rebounding’ because I know the other stuff will come.”
After a stretch in which UCSB has played six of its last eight games at the Thunderdome, the Gauchos hit the road for a quick two-game trip to Northridge and a non-conference game at Cal State Bakersfield.
