IRVINE— Defense may travel in basketball, as the saying goes, but the UC Santa Barbara women’s team left its offense at home on Saturday.
The Gauchos shot a season-worst 28.3% in a 63-41 defeat at UC Irvine to fall farther off the pace in Big West Conference basketball.
UCSB (16-6, 8-5 Big West), which has lost three of its last four games, fell deeper into fifth place in the league race, two games behind third-place Cal State Fullerton and UC Davis.
The top four teams receive byes in the Big West Tournament next month.
“Offensively, we generated a lot of good looks, but we didn’t finish, and that was really frustrating,” Gaucho coach Renee Jimenez said.
The Gauchos, who were at one time ranked second nationally in three-point accuracy, haven’t shot over 31.4% from the arc in any of their last seven games. Saturday’s three-point shooting of 5-for-25 makes them just 69-for-232 (26.3%) since January 17.
The victory helped second-place Irvine (19-4, 10-2) keep pace with league-leading UC San Diego (17-6, 12-1).
The Gauchos hadn’t scored less than 41 points in a game since the Anteaters routed them 58-31 at the Bren Center on February 3, 2022.
Irvine came into Saturday’s game ranked 29th nationally by having allowed its opponents just 57.1 points per game.
“Santa Barbara was coming off a really good game against Davis,” said UCI coach Tamara Inoue, referring to the Gauchos’ 69-61 victory on Thursday. “They were firing up, so we knew we had to really slow them down and really contain them.
“I thought our team did a really good job of that.”
The Anteaters prompted a quick timeout from Jimenez when they took a 6-0 lead with three easy baskets in the first two minutes.
Skylar Burke, who missed the previous seven games with an ankle injury, came off the bench to bring the Gauchos to life. She made two free throws after drawing a foul on a driving attack and then hit a spinning floater just 37 seconds later to reduce the Gaucho deficit to 8-7.
She was limited to just 12 minutes, however.
Jessica Grant, who had made just 5-of-35 three-point attempts (14.3%) in UCSB’s previous eight games, got one to bounce three times on the rim before it settled through the hoop to tie the game at 10-all with 1:55 left in the first quarter. He went 2-for-5 from three in the game.
But the rest of the first half was an offensive nightmare for the Gauchos. They made just three of their last 17 shots, missed all seven of their three-pointers and committed five of their 10 first-half turnovers.
“We still have to prove that we’re tough enough to win big games, especially back-to-back,” Jimenez said. “Consistency is the next step for us.
“We need to put consecutive performances together and continue to grow by learning from both the good and the bad. That’s where I really want to challenge our team to improve.”
UCSB held UC Irvine to just 34.3% in the first half, but it was enough to take a 32-17 lead by halftime. The Gauchos shot just 25% in the first 20 minutes.
Nothing had changed after halftime. UCSB missed its first five shots of the third quarter — three from three-point range.
The Anteaters got threes from Summah Hanson and Shirel Nahum while scoring the first eight points of the half to extend their lead to 40-17.
The Gauchos never got closer than 18 points the rest of the way.
UCI shot just 34.8% for the game. Jada Wynn was held to more than six points under her average, scoring nine while making just 2-of-9 field-goal attempts.
But guard Hunter Hernandez, the Big West’s No. 2 scorer with an 18.2-point average, finished with a game-high 15 points while grabbing 10 rebounds.
“Defensively, I thought we were solid,” Jimenez said. “Zoe Borter did a phenomenal job on Jada Wynn.
“We were a big undersized with Maddie (Naro) guarding Hunter Hernandez, and that created some problems for us.
“We needed better help in those situations and that was part of the plan, but we didn’t execute it well enough and that’s where the rest of our guys needed to be better.”
Hanson had a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds to help Irvine dominate the backboards, 48-35.
No UCSB player reached double figures in scoring. Julia Puente-Valverde led the Gauchos with nine points — all in the fourth quarter — and 10 rebounds.
None of her teammates made more than two baskets.