GREELEY, Colo. – Though the weather in Colorado was unseasonably warm on Saturday, the UCSB women’s basketball team’s shooting was unseasonably cold.
An eight-plus minute stretch to open the second half saw UCSB fail to score and it allowed Northern Colorado to sneak away with a 44-39 victory at the Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion. UCSB falls to 2-4 while the Bears improve to 4-2.
The Gauchos shot just 20.8 percent in the second half, en route to a 28.8 clip on the evening, dropping their second straight game. After scoring just 11 first-half points in Wednesday’s loss to Washington, the Gauchos managed just 14 second-half points vs. Northern Colorado.
That total matches the program’s low for points in a second half, originally achieved in a 78-33 loss to UNLV on Feb. 17, 1990.
That allowed the Bears to turn a 25-20 halftime deficit into a 34-25 lead with 12:17 left, matching UNC’s largest lead of the game.
Santa Barbara didn’t get its first points of the second half until a baseline jumper from Angelei Aguirre with 11:56 left cut UNC’s lead to seven points.
The Gauchos trailed by four with just over five minutes left, but never got closer than 42-39 on Kelsey Adrian’s three-pointer with under two minutes to play.
Adrian finished with a team-high 10 points, the second game in a row she’s led the team in scoring.
Kirsten Tilleman had eight points and seven rebounds for the Gauchos.
UCSB trailed by nine midway through the first half, but a 17-3 run to close out the first stanza gave the Gauchos a five-point lead at the break.
Santa Barbara returns home for three games, beginning on Friday, Dec. 2 with a 7 p.m. tip against USF.
