UCSB fell into Kentucky’s pressure cooker on Wednesday and couldn’t get out, succumbing to the Wildcats’ relentless defensive heat in a 68-54 women’s basketball loss at the Thunderdome.
There wasn’t a moment when the Gauchos had the ball that they weren’t under intense pressure and it paid off for Kentucky in the form of 25 turnovers.
The loss drops the Gauchos to 0-4 before they begin a three-game road stretch starting on Sunday at the University of San Diego.
“None of us are OK with 25 turnovers but it was absolutely the difference in the game,” UCSB head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said.
The turnovers resulted in 19 more field-goal attempts for the Wildcats, who were led in scoring by Victoria Dunlap’s 17.
Even though they knew it was coming, Kentucky’s aggressiveness was still a shock to the system, forcing the Gauchos into four consecutive turnovers to start the game.
“Coach told us it’s a different kind of basketball and it was. We just have to handle (the pressure), there’s no excuse,” said UCSB’s sophomore point guard Emilie Johnson, who shared the team-lead in turnovers with Jordan Franey.
“Schools have been doing that against us since Fresno so they know we’re going to crumble and our goal is not to crumble from now on,” was how Gauchos center Mekia Valentine put it, knowing that the schedule won’t cut them any breaks.
“We scheduled this schedule because we’re good,” she said. “And we’re good enough to play those teams and good enough to beat those teams. It just has to come to us.”
After the rough start, UCSB showed a glimpse of that team, taking off on a 10-0 run to take a six-point lead which it held until at 16-10, Kentucky launched its own 15-0 run – aided by five Gaucho turnovers – to go up 25-16.
UCSB broke out of a two-game shooting slump and shot 55 percent from the floor in the first half to stay in the game and take only a seven-point deficit into halftime.
Three more turnovers to start the second half allowed Kentucky to extend its lead and once it got to double digits the Gauchos couldn’t get back into the game.
Valentine scored 14 points on 7-for-8 shooting, plus blocked seven shots for the second time this season, putting her in second behind Kris Grazzini in the single-game Gaucho record books. The 6-foot-4 junior is averaging nearly seven a game on the year.
Johnson matched Valentine with a team-high 14 points while Meagan Williams scored 11. Valentine also led UCSB in the rebounding category with nine.
Kentucky, just one of seven undefeated teams in the SEC, improves to 5-0 on the season.
