Overview:
Anya Choice leads the Gauchos with 11 points; Alexis Whitfield grabs 10 rebounds
LA JOLLA — UC San Diego pulled an inside job on UC Santa Barbara to complete its 64-50 women’s basketball victory at the LionTree Arena on Thursday.
The Tritons out-scored the Gauchos 40-20 in the paint to hand them their first Big West Conference defeat of the season.
“You would’ve thought they blocked 10 shots with how frantic we were at the rim — how off-balanced we were,” UCSB coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “They blocked two.
“They just make you hit a tough two and we weren’t on balance much at the rim.”
The Gauchos (8-5, 2-1 Big West) made 41.2% of their three-pointers (7-of-17), led by Jessica Grant’s 3-for-6 shooting. But they sank just 29.7% of their two-point attempts (11-of-37).
Senior post player Alexis Whitfield finished with 10 rebounds and junior center Flora Goed grabbed a season-high seven, but they both struggled to score inside
Whitfield, UCSB’s leading scorer on the season with a 14.8-point average, made just 3-of-13 shots, and two of those were three-pointers. Goed missed all four of her shots.
Backup center Laurel Rockwood was the only Gauchos to make at least half her shots, converting 4-of-5 attempts.
“Laurel was good around the rim, but outside of that we were very inconsistent,” Henrickson said. “During one of the timeouts I said, ‘I’m going to give you credit because typically teams that are struggling to score will stop defending.’
“We were getting stops and stops and stops. But then we weren’t getting anything offensively.”
UC San Diego (5-8, 1-1) shot just 41.5% overall and 18.8% from three. Freshman guard Sumayah Sugapong led the Tritons with 20 points.
Anya Choice scored the Gauchos’ first six points to put them ahead 6-4. She led UCSB with 11 points. Grant’s first three extended that lead to five points.
But the Tritons took the lead for good with a 9-3 run late in the first quarter. They kept that lead by halftime, 29-23.
“The second quarter we were 3-for-17, and at some point we’ve got to score,” Henrickson said. “We were so sped up … Our shot selection was just horrendous.
“We weren’t getting downhill and we weren’t finishing on balance.”
San Diego pulled ahead 42-33 by the end of the third quarter. The Tritons shot 72.7% in the fourth period (8-for-11) to win comfortably.
The Gauchos will return home with a 4 p.m. game on Saturday against Cal Poly.
“We’ve got to regroup,” Henrickson said. “We’ve got a quick turnaround.”