UC Santa Barbara fell behind early and could not recover as UC Davis took the 65-47 win in the Thunderdome on Saturday afternoon.
The Gauchos’ conference record drops to 3-11 and now stands 8-19 overall. The Aggies improved its winning streak to three games and are now 8-6 in the Big West and 13-14 on the season.
Melissa Zornig led UCSB with 12 points with Clair Watkins adding 11. Sydnee Fipps finished with a game-high 18 points, while Alyson Doherty and Molly Greubul followed her with 15 and 14 points, respectively.
In the rebounding category, the Gauchos were led by Destini Mason’s six and Jasmine Ware’s five. The Aggies had a 41-34 advantage on the boards as Fipps led the way with eight.
UC Davis stormed out ahead to start the game with a 15-2 run. Greubul poured in the opening basket on her team’s first possession.
The Gauchos evened the score after Watkins had a tip back after a missed jumper.
From there, Davis dialed in 13 unanswered points and took the double-digit lead with 14:48 to play in the first half.
Santa Barbara brought itself back within single digits of the Aggies on a few occasions in the ensuing minutes. One of those moments came when Mason stripped Doherty and took the ball the other way. With only one defender to beat, Mason fed the ball to Nesbit off a bounce pass for the easy transition layup to make the score 27-18.
Overall, UCSB scored 14 points from 16 UC Davis turnovers with six coming off steals. Mason finished with a pair of swipes, while Onome Jemerigbe led the floor with three.
Davis closed out the half on top with a 12-7 run capped off by a Fipps layup with 19 seconds to go.
UCSB struggled in the opening minutes of the second half, but limited the Aggies to just five points before the first media timeout.
Watkins gave the Gauchos their first point of the half with a free throw, while Mason hit a baseline jumper for the team’s first field goal. The senior paced the UCSB bench with six points to go along with her six boards.
Despite the cold start, UCSB battled hard and put themselves within 11 points of the Aggies at 52-41 by scoring five unanswered points.
Zornig opened the run with a layup, while Nesbit sunk a free throw and Kendra Morrison went a perfect 2-for-2 on her trip to the foul line.
The lead proved to be too much for the Gauchos, though, as the Aggies completed the game with the 65-47 victory.
UCSB will begin the final week of the regular season in Hawai’i next Thursday.
