The Gaucho known as “Grandma” by her UC Santa Barbara teammates experienced some more senior moments at the Thunderdome on Wednesday.
Alyssa Marin, fresh off placing the third Big West Conference Player of the Week Award of her career into the trophy case, scored 19 points in just 22 minutes to lead the Gauchos to a 96-60 women’s basketball victory over Cal Lutheran.
Playing an NCAA Division III opponent didn’t lessen the urgency for UCSB’s fifth-year point guard. She is already feeling wistful about completing her long Gaucho career.
“It’s honestly going to be hard, of course, with all that UCSB has brought to me,” Marin said. “I’m just taking one game at a time and I’m very, very grateful every single time I get to see all the fans, all the alumni, all my family out there.
“I’m really taking it all in, every step of the way.”
Marin, who scored 31 points in back-to-back games last week, led a three-point barrage for the 3-2 Gauchos during Wednesday’s contest. She made 4-of-9 bonus bombs and all five of her free throws.
The 5-foot-9 point guard from Camarillo High School is shooting 40.7% from three and 88% from the foul line so far this year while averaging a team-high 19.8 points per game.
She and fellow fifth-year senior Anya Choice are also leading the Gauchos (3-2) emotionally every step of the way.
“They’re my grandmas,” sophomore Kanani Coon said after scoring a career-high 10 points. “I love them.
“They’re honestly the most supportive people I’ve ever met — ever — out of any team I’ve been on. That’s one thing I’m super-thankful for.
“It’s not just me … When anyone is down, they pick us up. They really do help us not just with positive words but they’ll tell us a play before we have to do it when they see we’re confused.”
UCSB coach Renee Jimenez liked the teamwork she saw during Wednesday’s victory.
“We had 32 makes on 23 assists tonight — those are the kind of games we need to have,” she said. “We need to make teams scramble and make things hard for them to be able to knock down those shots.”
The Gauchos surged to a 54-25 lead by halftime. They flirted with the school’s single-game record of 18 three-pointers by making eight in the second quarter to give them 11 by halftime.
UCSB settled for just two more apiece in the last two periods, finishing at 15-for-36 (41.7%).
“I told them to stop shooting (threes) because we need to save some of those for Sunday’s game,” Jimenez said.
“I’m just kidding — I would never say that,” she added quickly. “We have to be able to space the floor with our limited size.
“We have some really good passers and great shooters on the perimeter, so to be able to create shots like that for each other is really important.”
Junior Jessica Grant contributed both, finishing with four assists while making 3-of-6 threes. Fellow junior guard Skylar Burke led the Gauchos with five assists while also grabbing six rebounds.
Sophomore Zoe Borter scored eight of UCSB’s first nine points by converting a pair of three-pointers and a press-breaking layup during the first four minutes. She finished with 15 points.
Coon, a 6-foot-2 guard from Kelowna, Canada, made both of her three-point attempts and shot 4-for-5 overall while playing a career-high 17 minutes.
“Tonight was a lot of fun — it was really nice to get out there,” she said. “My biggest thing mentally is being able to grasp the scout, grasp what we need to do on defense. It’s a different system.
“I know I have a lot to work on, but I’m super-excited for it to click and be able to get out there.”
Learning a new coach’s system, Jimenez said, isn’t easy for a young player.
“Everybody gets that stuff at different times,” she said. “It might be nine, 10 games in … It might be a season. You just never know when that clicks.
“But I will give Nani a lot of credit for the time she spends when practice ends, trying to get better at remembering what the plays are, remembering what the defensive reads are, and things like that.”
“Nani is a great athlete and she shoots the heck out of the ball.”
Choice added 11 points and Laurel Rockwood helped UCSB double-up Cal Lutheran in rebounds, 46-23, by grabbing seven in just 13 minutes.
Kaiya Mack helped Cal Lutheran stay nearly even with the Gauchos in the final two quarters (42-35), making 3-of-5 threes for a team-high 19 points. Janna Holley added 14 points.
Jimenez sensed a letup by her team in the second half.
“I could feel when I walked into the locker room tonight there was almost like a sadness, which is good,” she said. “For a coach, you really want that because you want them to understand that there’s a standard of play now.
“Regardless of whether we’re up 30 or 40, we have to meet that standard of play every night.”
UCSB’s next game will actually be an afternoon matinee on Sunday against the University of San Diego. The Gauchos and Toreros will tip off at the Thunderdome at 2 p.m.