Overview:
Gaucho forwards Olivia Bradley and Zoe Borter combine for 44 points, but UCSB’s three guards miss nine of their 10 three-point attempts
FULLERTON — Cal State Fullerton’s Cristina Jones has been a real buzzkill for the UC Santa Barbara women’s basketball team this season.
Jones’ buzzer-beating basket beat the Gauchos for the second time this month, 62-60, in a thriller at Titan Gym on Saturday.
Jones, who scored a last-second putback on New Year’s Day to pull out a 62-61 victory at UCSB’s Thunderdome, capped the Gauchos’ heartbreaking month by muscling a short bank shot through a pair of defenders on an inbounds play with just 0.2 seconds remaining.
“We just got our coach’s plan, got up and had to execute it,” she said.
It marked UCSB’s third defeat in the closing seconds of a Big West Conference game this season. The loss dropped the Gauchos (15-5, 7-4 in league) into fifth place in the standings behind Fullerton (12-9, 8-3).
“It’s frustrating to lose three games by one possession,” UCSB coach Renee Jimenez said. “We’ve had double-digit leads in each of those games, so it’s not about effort of preparation, it’s about finishing on the defensive end.
“We have to be better at closing games out, developing a killer instinct, and putting teams away when the opportunity is there.”
The loss negated a strong performance by UCSB’s bookend forwards of sophomore Olivia Bradley and junior Zoe Borter.
Bradley scored 25 points on 9-of-15 shooting — 3-of-6 from three-point range — while grabbing six rebounds, making four steals and blocking three shots.
She would have matched her career-high of 27 points if her basket on a last-second inbounds play hadn’t been waved off by the referees.
Although replays showed that the clock hadn’t expired until after she scored, it also showed her coming down with the pass before quickly flipping it through the hoop.
Clock management protocol — known as the Trent Tucker Rule — dictates that a catch-and-shoot basket requires at least 0.3 seconds. Bradley would have had to tip the pass through the hoop for it to have been counted.
Borter scored 19 points while making 6-of-14 shots. They included a whirling drive which tied the game at 60-all with 28.7 seconds to go. She converted 3-of-6 three-pointers and led UCSB with four assists.
But it was a forgettable game for the Gauchos’ three guards. They combined to make just 3-of-15 shots, 1-of-10 threes and assisted just two baskets while committing five turnovers.
They were outscored 33-7 by Fullerton’s guard line of Kya Pearson (19 points, five assists) and Maddy Tauro (14 points, six rebounds).
UCSB has won just two of five games — and both against the league’s last two teams — since senior guard Skylar Burke was sidelined by a leg injury. Burke, last year’s Big West Hustle Player of the Year, is not expected back for a few more weeks.
“Obviously losing Skylar has taken a hit on not just our depth but having another veteran and ball-handling guard on the floor,” Jimenez said. “She brings experience, toughness and poise to our team that we are searching for in finishing these three games we have lost.”
Jones scored 13 points with nine rebounds. The last of her five offensive rebounds came when she kept a missed shot by Pearson from going out of bounds. She threw it off Bradley to retain possession and give her team another chance with 2.3 seconds to go.
UCSB led by as many as 11 points, 41-30, after Bradley’s two free throws with 7:33 left in the third quarter.
The Gauchos were still ahead by double-digits two minutes later, 45-35, after Borter burst through a double-team defense to score a layup.
But they made just 5-of-15 shots in the final 15 minutes while committing eight of their 20 turnovers.
The turnovers proved pivotal during a game in which UCSB outshot the Titans 44% to 36.9% and outrebounded them 39-33. The Gauchos, once one of the nation’s leading three-point shooting teams, also failed to emerge from a slump that extended to five games with a 7-for-25 performance (28%) from three.