PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland State (3-5) used a late comeback on Thursday evening to defeat UCSB (1-5) at the Peter W. Scott Center.
The Vikings recovered from a nine-point deficit in the second half to knock-off the Gauchos, 62-56.
Mekia Valentine led the Gauchos with her 17 points and three blocks. Emilie Johnson also entered double-digits with 15 points and tied Jordan Franey with her team-leading four assists, a season-high for Franey.
Ariana Gnekow led all players with a season-best eight rebounds while Margaret Johnson also collected a season-high of six rebounds.
The Gauchos entered the second half of the game with a one-point lead at 31-30 and quickly built upon their narrow advantage. Back-to-back jumpers by Valentine helped UCSB reach its biggest lead of the game at 46-37 with over 10 minutes to go in the game.
Portland State put a stop to the Gaucho run and poured on 10 unanswered points to take its first lead of the second half with just over five minutes on the clock. The Gauchos and Vikings battled back and forth with Emilie Johnson grabbing the last UCSB lead of the night with a three-pointer at 3:13.
The Vikings proceeded with another 10-0 run and closed out the game with the 62-56 win.
Claire Faucher led Portland State with 23 points and four assists.
UCSB will continue its tour of the Pacific Northwest on Saturday when they head to Corvallis to take on Oregon State in a 7 p.m. pairing. All women’s basketball games can be heard on AM 990 in Santa Barbara or streaming online at UCSBgauchos.com.
