RIVERSIDE – Nothing went right for the UCSB women’s basketball team on Saturday and it seemed everything went right for UC Riverside. Combine those two things and it resulted in an 81-48 defeat for the Gauchos at the Student Recreation Center.
UCR (9-7 overall, 3-1 in the Big West) used a 21-0 run early in the second half to put the game firmly in its back pocket. That resulted in a 27-2 edge for the Highlanders and the Gauchos could never recover from the hole.
UCSB had season-lows in both field goals made (13) and attempted (38) as UCR hit 47.4 percent of its shots and scored 33 points off of 24 UCSB turnovers. The Highlanders also hit 20 of 24 foul shots.
UCSB, which had won eight of 10 entering the game, falls to 9-8, 3-2.
It was the worst Big West Conference loss by the Gauchos since Jan. 30, 1993 in a 89-51 loss at then-member UNLV.
The first half truly decided Saturday’s game as the Gauchos went 12 minutes, 34 seconds between field goals, 9:55 without scoring a point and didn’t reach double digits until 2:25 remained.
“There’s a lot to say, but there’s not a lot of good to say,” head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “This is a good team. But we came out and weren’t ready to go. One thing exasperated the next. All of a sudden, it was a really deep hole.”
The second half played a bit closer as UCSB got 41 of its points from its bench players. Stefanie Corgel had a career-high 12 points (which led the team), Sweets Underwood added 11 points and Melissa Zornig had 10. Underwood led the team with nine rebounds.
The Gauchos do not return to the court until Saturday, Jan. 22 when they host Cal State Fullerton at 2 p.m.
