LONG BEACH — Unfortunately for the UC Santa Barbara women’s basketball team, the game lasts 40 minutes. And Long Beach State made sure to utilize every second of that.
The 49ers, who trailed by double digits late in the second half, put together a furious rally and beat the Gauchos 65-62 on Saturday evening at the Pyramid. The defeat was UCSB’s third in a row – its first three-game conference losing skid since the 1994-95 season.
UCSB falls to 8-16 overall and 5-7 in the Big West while Long Beach improves to 11-13, 7-4.
The Gauchos led by 13 points with 6:24 remaining in the game after Jordan Franey’s layup, but it was an old enemy, the turnover, that haunted UCSB down the stretch.
Santa Barbara committed six of its 22 turnovers in the final 4:35 of the game, leading to Long Beach going on a 21-8 run in that time to rip the game from UCSB’s grasp.
“As a team we got a little comfortable with our lead,” said Mekia Valentine, who recorded her second straight double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds, and her eighth overall this season.
Emilie Johnson scored 16 points and had eight rebounds for UCSB while Meagan Williams added eight points and eight boards.
Off of a Gaucho turnover Melanie Lisnock drained a 3-pointer with just 0:41 left to give Long Beach a 59-58 lead, its first lead of the game since 17:17 remained in the first half. That followed her previous trey with 1:37 to go that made it a two-point game.
Johnson missed a free throw and from there UCSB was forced to foul. The 49ers made 6 of 8 free throws down the stretch to ice the game.
The Gauchos closed the first half on a 9-0 run, highlighted by seven of those points coming from Valentine, who hit a layup with less than 0:02 left in the half for UCSB to take a 29-20 lead into halftime.
But LBSU scored 45 points in the second half on 40.6% shooting to win the game.
