BAKERSFIELD — Zoe Borter’s fast start on Saturday gave UC Santa Barbara its best start in women’s basketball in 38 years.
Borter scored 20 of a career-high 25 points in the first half of a 67-47 victory at Cal State Bakersfield’s Icardo Center, improving the Gauchos’ records to 8-1 overall and 2-0 in this week’s early-bird start of Big West Conference play.
It represents UCSB’s best start since it went 8-0 during its nonconference season of 1987-88 — coach Mark French’s first year at the helm. Those Gauchos then lost four in a row to start league.
“I think we had great momentum coming into this road trip,” second-year coach Renee Jimenez said. “Winning that Grand Canyon game at home and the Chattanooga game — being able to win close games — has given us a lot of confidence that we can beat really good teams.”
The Gauchos’ current seven-game winning streak is its longest since the 2011-2012 season.
They do have a long way to go to break the school record of 26 consecutive victories set by French’s 1998-99 team.
Borter’s 25 points eclipsed her previous best of 22 set earlier this season at San Jose State.
The 6-foot junior forward also shot a career-best 5-for-5 from the three-point line, surpassing her 4-for-8 performance against the Spartans.
“Zoe carried us through that first half when we really couldn’t get anything going offensively,” Jimenez said. “We missed a lot of easy baskets around the rim, but she made some huge shots that really kept our momentum going offensively.”
Borter took a 10-4 lead over Bakersfield all by herself. She made a pair of threes, a layup off Olivia Bradley’s high-post pass and two free throws during the outburst in the game’s first four minutes.
Bradley had a lot of shots rim in and out on Saturday, making just 3-of-12, but she contributed a team-high seven rebounds, four assists and a block.
“There was kind of a cover on the rim for her today, but seven rebounds and four assists — she really found other ways to help us,” Jimenez said. “That’s a big growth moment for Liv.”
Maddie Naro led UCSB in assists with five and also grabbed five rebounds from her point-guard position.
Borter made two more threes in the second period to send UCSB into halftime with a 32-20 lead. She made her fifth long bomb in as many attempts to start the second half and didn’t attempt another.
Borter now averages a team-best 15.2 points per game and her 48.7% shooting from three (19-for-39) is second only to Jessica Grant’s 50% (24-for-48). Grant came into the game ranked 11th nationally at 51.1%.
UCSB tipped off the contest with five players averaging 9.0 points or more.
“You have to pick when you play us,” Jimenez said. “It’s like, ‘Is it Liv? Is it Zoe? Is it Sky? Is it Jess? Is it Maddie? Is it Zoe Shaw?’
“Like there are all of these offensive weapons. Who are you going to choose to make it hard on? So somebody is going to get something easy.”
The Gauchos were fourth nationally as a team in both three-point makes per game (10.9) and three-point percentage (40.8%). They made 7-of-16 as a team on Saturday to move those numbers to 10.4 per game and 41%.
Skylar Burke, who was picked by the league’s coaches to their preseason All-Big West team, had her best game of the season. She scored 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting while getting five rebounds. She scored seven in the second half.
She assisted Borter as she flashed for a basket, giving the Gauchos their biggest lead of the game, 60-30, with 6:51 remaining.
“The one thing you count on with Sky is that she’s always going to play hard, she’s always going to rebound,” Jimenez said. “She took two charges in a row that just changed the momentum of the game.
“I was glad to see her get going offensively because I know it’s an itch that she’s been wanting to scratch.
“We’ve been like, ‘It’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,’ so I’m glad to see her get her confidence and her bounce back on the offensive end.”
Bakersfield (2-7, 0-2 Big West) used a 15-2 run — mostly against UCSB’s reserves — to cut that margin to 62-45 with only 1:33 on the clock.
“I walked into the locker room and they were all a little bit down because I think there’s a standard of play now, which is where you want to be,” Jimenez said. “You want to win, but you want to win meeting your standards.
“I don’t think we felt that way today. We have yet to learn how to put our foot on someone’s throat and really close out games.”
But the Gauchos still ended up holding Chrishawn Coleman and Maria Dias, their top two offensive players, to just 9-for-35 shooting. The Roadrunners shot just 30.5% overall and 10% (2-for-20) from three.
Dias topped the Roadrunners in scoring with 14 points while Coleman added 12.
“We made Coleman take some 10-foot, pull-up jumpers and not give her layups at the rim, so I thought we did a really good job of taking away the things she wants to do,” Jimenez said.
The Gauchos will resume nonconference play on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Utah Tech — their sixth straight road game. They’ll finally return home to face Eastern Washington on Dec 18 at 6 p.m. in their final nonleague contest.