Last Saturday’s big step forward was followed by Thursday’s backwards stumble for the UC Santa Barbara women’s basketball team.
The Gauchos suffered a 62-43 home loss to UC San Diego just five days after an upset road victory at Big West Conference leader UC Davis.
“I just told them, ‘Every time I think we’re over the hump, we literally just face-plant on the other side of it,’” UCSB coach Renee Jimenez said. “That might have been our worst one of the year, to be honest.”
She said the Gauchos’ mindset did an about-face from Saturday’s 63-50 road victory.
“I feel like when we can sucker-punch the big guy, we’re really good,” Jimenez said. “But when people come in and are like, ‘All right, let’s go toe-to-toe,’ we kind of don’t want anything to do with that.
“We have to decide that we want to fight.”
UCSB (10-8, 4-4 Big West Conference) opened league play on Dec. 5 with an inspired, 80-66 rout at UC San Diego. Jimenez sensed that the Tritons (9-11, 5-3) had “noted” the excitement the Gauchos displayed in that victory.
“They wanted to beat us …They wanted to win that game,” she said. “That game meant something to them. You could feel that.
“We play with desperation against the Davis’ and the Hawai’i’s … But when it’s those teams that are at our level or below, we look like we’re playing to not lose.”
UCSB shot just 28.3% overall and 21.4% from three-point range (6-for-28). San Diego wasn’t much better at 32.8%, but it pulled away with a 28-point fourth quarter by making 7-of-14 shots and 11-of-14 free throws.
The Tritons drew 21 fouls and committed just 13 of their own.
“I think we let the missed shots affect us defensively in that fourth quarter,” Jimenez said. “That rattled us.
“At the end of the game of basketball, the ball has got to go into the basket.”
Alyssa Marin led UCSB with 13 points but made only 1-of-6 threes. Jessica Grant added 11 points, sinking 3-of-10 threes.
Grant’s lone two-pointer on a fast-break layup gave the Gauchos a 29-27 lead with 5:31 to go in the third quarter. The Tritons answered with a seven-point run.
A jumper by Marin and Grant’s three knotted the score at 34-all by the end of the period.
But San Diego started the fourth quarter with a three-point play by Sumayah Sugapong and a three-pointer by Parker Montgomery and never looked back.
“We kept telling them, ‘We’re OK, we’re OK,’” Jimenez said. “We were getting their best shot but we couldn’t find the bottom of the net tonight.”
San Diego outscored UCSB 20-5 in the last seven minutes.
“They played with more desire to win,” Jimenez said. “When No. 32 (Montgomery) took some threes, and 15 (Sumayah Ma), they were like, ‘This shot has to go in!’
“Our kids looked like, ‘Oh, I hope my shot goes in.’ That’s the mentality you can’t have.”
Sugapong made 11-of-12 foul shots and finished with a game-high 21 points. Ma added 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The Gauchos out-rebounded the Tritons 43-39 but also committed 10 more turnovers (17-to-7)
UCSB will look to bounce back on Saturday at 4 p.m. when it concludes its homestand against Cal State Fullerton.
“We can’t put two wins together right now,” Jimenez said. “I told them, ‘This is a problem.’
“They are going to have to work through this and figure out, ‘What’s the disconnect there?’”