RIVERSIDE — The Sky is the limit for UC Santa Barbara women’s basketball now that Skylar Burke is back on the court.
Burke, who missed seven games in January with a sprained ankle, registered her second double-double of the season on Thursday to lead the Gauchos to a 61-57 victory at UC Riverside.
She led UCSB in scoring for the second straight game with 15 points while also pulling down a season-high 12 rebounds from her guard position.
The victory is the third in the last four games for the Gauchos (19-8, 11-7 Big West Conference).
Riverside (9-19, 7-11) rallied to within 56-55 on a free throw by Hannah Wickstrom with 55 seconds remaining. Wickstrom led all scorers with 25 points.
But Madison Naro took a driving pass from Burke in the right corner and sank her second three-pointer of the fourth quarter with 18 seconds to go.
Naro scored 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from three-point range. She also had three assists and three steals.
Burke drew a foul from the Highlanders just eight seconds later and capped the victory with two free throws with 10.5 seconds on the clock.
Burke scored 11 points in the first half, mostly on drives to the basket, to give the Gauchos a 29-26 lead.
Jessica Grant’s 215th career three-pointer improved the lead to 44-40 with 2:05 left in the third quarter. It tied her with Jess Hansen (1999-2003) for third place in UCSB’s record books.
Erin Alexander (1993-1996) holds the school record of 233 while Stacy Clinesmith (1996-2000) is second with 227.
Zoe Borter’s 10 points included a spinning hook shot that snapped a 54-54 tie with 1:14 remaining.
Olivia Bradley contributed nine of her 14 points in the second half. She also had five rebounds.
Burke and Grant will be honored on Senior Day on Saturday before the 2 p.m. tipoff against Big West leader UC Irvine (24-4, 15-2).