Sha’Rae Gibbons poured in a season-high 17 points, Kat Suderman delivered one of her best games of the season and Lauren Pedersen had a double-double as the UC Santa Barbara women’s basketball team got back on track with a convincing 69-50 victory over UC Davis on Saturday evening.
Following a tough loss to Pacific on Thursday night which snapped UCSB’s 19-game road conference winning streak – which had been the longest in the nation – the Gauchos may have played their best overall game this season.
UCSB shot 51.9% from the field, including 10 of 19 from three-point land, and dominated on the glass, outrebounding Davis, 37-19.
Plus, Jenna Green’s outstanding defense again held one of the conference’s top scorers in check as Paige Mintun had 10 points on just 3 of 13 shooting.
UCSB improves to 17-8 overall and 12-1 in the Big West. UC Davis falls to 9-16, 5-9.
Pedersen had 11 points and dished out 10 assists, again filling up a stat line that included five rebounds and four steals.
After only playing just 11 first-half minutes because of foul trouble, Gibbons came out on fire in the second half, draining four of her five three-pointers. The senior, playing her last game in front of her nearby Sacramento friends and family, went 6 of 7 from the floor, including a perfect 5-for-5 from downtown. She also had three rebounds and four assists.
Gibbons suffered a cut to the bridge of her nose midway through the second half and had to be removed, but she came back bandaged up and sank another trey to put some finishing touches on the victory.
Suderman, who missed 12 games earlier this year because of injury, had 10 points and five rebounds off the bench to go with three assists and a block. Suderman went 5 of 7 from the floor, helping the Gauchos to their best shooting percentage of the season.
|
|
 |
Margaret Johnson, back in the starting lineup after missing Thursday’s game, added eight points, four boards and a steal while Green’s streak of double-doubles ended but the senior had eight points.
That was enough to move Green into sole possession of 10th place all-time in UCSB career scoring history, knocking Erika Kienast out of that spot.
Freshman Emilie Johnson, playing in front of a raucous Del Oro High crowd (her alma mater) that chanted her name at every opportunity, added eight points and three rebounds, hitting a pair of three-pointers.
UC Davis and UCSB could meet up again in Anaheim during the Big West Tournament next month. Make sure to get your tickets to the tournament because with every ticket purchased comes with a free UCSB T-shirt. Click here to purchase tickets.
The Gauchos return home on Feb. 24 vs. Oregon State at 7 p.m. for the team’s Pink Zone game to raise breast cancer awareness. Tickets are just $1 and pink baseball hats and player-designed pink T-shirts will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds going toward breast cancer research.
