Defensively, they’re really good and want to get better.
UCSB’s women’s basketball team entered Thursday night’s game against Fullerton as the fifth-best defense in the nation in regards to opponents’ field-goal percentage, and it certainly didn’t hurt the Gauchos (14-7, 9-0 Big West) to hold the Titans to 27-percent from the floor in their 57-46 win.
“I’ve been following some of those numbers, but it makes it hard to tell them how much better we can get when there’s only four teams better than us in the country,” said coach Lindsay Gottlieb. “The crazy thing is that none of us are really happy about how we played defensively (in this week’s loss) against Bakersfield. What a great thing to say we’re fifth in the country and we can be better.”
Fullerton (6-14, 3-6) was a dismal 2-for-25 from beyond the arc in the game and went over eight minutes without a field goal in in the middle of the second half, opening the door wide open for the Gauchos to step through and run away.
Lauren Pederson scored a team-high 15 points while Jordan Franey added 10, but Jenna Green once again had the night’s top performance, scoring 12 with 10 boards, five assists and five turnovers while committing none of the Gauchos’ 21 turnovers.
Green, however, left the game with a left shoulder injury late in the second half after taking a spill in the paint. Gottlieb said it may have popped out of the socket.
The game was knotted up at 20-20 at the half, and the Gauchos — a stellar free-throw shooting team — didn’t get to the line once before the break. That changed drastically, however, as they got to the line 23 times in the second half, converting on 17.
Gottlieb said that one of the team’s goals is to make more free throws than the opponent takes, and the Gauchos beat that margin by five despite the first-half drought. The coach said that Whitney Warren and Christine Spencer were the night’s standouts defensively, rendering Fullerton guard Megan Richardson 0-for-10 from the floor on the night. Sharpshooter Lauren Chow also struggled for the Titans, going 2-for-11 from the field.
Franey came off the bench and actually led the Gauchos in minutes, grabbing nine boards in 30 minutes.
“I think I’ve just bought into my role… I like coming off the bench to bring energy and hustle and a point or two when needed,” said the redhead.
It was the eighth consecutive game in which three or more Gauchos have been in double figures, and the minutes were spread evenly as well. Gottlieb said that while the turnovers were excessive, the aggressiveness of her team’s play was able to make up for it.
“I really like pretty basketball — it’s just part of what makes me a basketball nerd,” she said. “But I also like tough basketball and I’ll take that,” she said.
The Titans were called for 20 fouls to the Gauchos’ 14, but that was 14 too many for some of the Gaucho faithful. One particular group berated the referees incessantly enough to have security called over to the stands to calm things down.
The mentality in the stands was the same as that of the Gauchos on defense — never be satisfied.
