The old guard at UC Santa Barbara stood tall at the Thunderdome on Wednesday in the debut of their new women’s basketball coach.
Four veteran guards reached double-figure scoring for the Gauchos in their 70-26 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and returning all-league point guard Alyssa Marin wasn’t one of them.
New coach Renee Jimenez noted the departure of Alexis Whitfield, UCSB’s All-Big West Conference forward last year, while asking those guards to “fill some pretty big shoes.”
Whitfield is now starting as a graduate transfer at Oregon.
“There are about 16 points (a game) that left with Whit, so we’re trying to fill that void a different way,” Jimenez said. “I’ve really encouraged them all to be scorers and be aggressive and not settle.
“They’re not role players anymore.”
Jimenez, a successful head coach at the Division II level for the last 15 years, took over the Gaucho reins last spring after the retirement of Bonnie Henrickson.
“It’s definitely different, of course,” said fifth-year senior guard Anya Choice. “I was with Bonnie for four years … But it’s a good different.
“They’re both great coaches and great people, but they have different styles … and I’m enjoying myself so far.”
Choice made 5-of-7 shots which included a three-pointer to share team-high honors with 12 points. Junior guard Jessica Grant also scored a dozen while making 4-of-9 threes.
Martha Pietsch, a junior transfer point guard from Oregon State, added 11 points with five assists.
Junior guard Skylar Burke contributed 10 points, seven rebounds and two steals.
“We lost one of our big scorers and now other people have to fill in different roles and find points somewhere else,” Burke said. “We’re guard-heavy and we can put a lot of people in a lot of places.”
The Gauchos out-shot the NCAA Division III Athenas 45% to 18% and out-rebounded them 47-27. UCSB center Laurel Rockwood dominated the backboards with 10 rebounds while Flora Goed got five more off the bench.
UCSB also forced Claremont into 20 turnovers while making eight steals.
“We have a big game on Saturday (at USF at 3:30 p.m.), so we didn’t even get into our main offense,” Jimenez said. “We kept a lot in our pocket tonight and really tried to get a lot of stuff from our defense.”
The Gauchos made eight of their first nine shots, which included a three-pointer by sophomore guard Zoe Borter. Four turnovers in the first five minutes, however, kept them out of the early lead.
Claremont’s Renee Chong made three straight three-pointers to outscore UCSB 9-6 all by herself at the start. She finished with 15 of the Athenas’ 26 points on 6-of-13 shooting — 3-of-6 from three.
The Gauchos hamstrung themselves in the first quarter by committing seven of their 17 turnovers.
Two free throws by Pietsch, however, capped a string of 11 points that put UCSB ahead 17-9. Grant contributed a pair of threes during a 20-2 run that increased the lead to 37-14 by halftime.
Jimenez said the Gauchos have been too hesitant to shoot.
“Jess one time was like five feet from the line and I was yelling ‘Shoot it!’” she said. “She shot it, so I was like, ‘OK, here we go.’
“But our last three scrimmages have been really interesting … We’ll go 20 seconds into the shot clock and be passing up shots, and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’
“It was fun to see Jess kind of get her flow going a little bit tonight. She was definitely lethal from three.”
Burke loosened up the Gauchos with several dazzling runners. She changed direction on one baseline drive which she converted with a reverse layup.
“Right now, I’m feeling pretty comfortable with my shot, with my moves, and just being able to settle down on offense,” Burke said. “Last year I got sped up a little bit and now I can really settle down and read the floor and make good reads.”
She got four of her seven rebounds off the miss of a teammate.
“Sky comes flying in out of places that I don’t understand,” Jimenez said. “It’s really impressive.”
She admitted that her team is still looking for “that sweet spot of when to take chances or pull it out and run something.”
“We missed some layups and had those jitters in the first couple of quarters, or that could’ve been probably a 90-point game for us,” Jimenez said. “But I’m really proud of this group.
“We’ve been talking a lot about how, ‘We’ve all got to get in the boat and head in the same direction.’
“I think I saw that tonight … They looked like they were having fun out there, and that was our No. 1 goal today.”