UC Santa Barbara Women’s Basketball squeezed out a 57-55 win over CSU Bakersfield on Saturday inside the Thunderdome.
The Gauchos (14-7, 8-3 Big West) survived a fourth-quarter comeback effort by the Roadrunners (6-14, 3-8 Big West) to pull out the victory.
CSU Bakersfield jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first quarter off a layup and a three-pointer, but Skylar Burke got the Gauchos back into the game with a pull-up jumper and a pair of free throws.
The rest of the opening quarter was a back-and-forth affair, and UCSB’s Zoe Borter tied the game up at 10-10 with 1:31 left in the quarter.
However, Bakersfield’s Morgan Edwards responded with a jumper to take a 12-10 lead, which held until the end of the first.
In the second, the Roadrunners got the scoring started on their first possession, but the Gauchos answered back with their first big offensive push of the game.
Led by six points from Burke, UCSB ripped off a 10-0 run to take a 20-14 lead midway through the second quarter.
The last few minutes of the first half swung back and forth and neither team could pull away. A knocked-down jumper from UCSB’s Mary McMorris knotted the score back up at 24-24 just before the halftime buzzer.
CSU Bakersfield came out of the break on fire, rattling off a 10-2 run and holding a 34-26 advantage at the 6:42 mark in the third quarter.
That lead grew out to 38-29 with 3:13 to go in the third, but Alyssa Marin and the Gauchos dominated the quarter from there.
Marin got the scoring run started with a driving layup and a pair of free throws, and by the end of the third, UCSB tied the game at 38-38.
Following some back-and-forth play to begin the fourth, the Gauchos got an offensive spark from Burke and McMorris, who scored five points apiece to lead a 13-2 run.
With four minutes left in regulation, UCSB seemed to be pulling away with a 57-45 lead.
However, that was far from the truth, as the Gaucho offense could not muster a point for the rest of the game.
Across those final four minutes, the Roadrunners slowly chipped away at the lead until a layup from Grace Hunter made the UCSB lead 57-55 with 25 seconds left.
On the next Gaucho possession, Alyssa Marin was fouled. However, she missed both free throws and it seemed like Bakersfield would get a chance to tie the game or take the lead.
But before that could happen, Alexis Whitfield came away with the offensive rebound for UCSB and she was then sent to the line.
Déjà vu then struck the Gauchos, as Whitfield missed both free throws as well. This time, the Roadrunners secured the rebound and called a timeout with 10 seconds left on the clock.
Fortunately for UCSB, Bakersfield could not convert on the other end of the floor and the Gauchos survived for the win.
Burke and McMorris were the lone players in double figures for UCSB, scoring 19 and 11 points, respectively. Meanwhile, Whitfield gobbled up an impressive 18 rebounds in the win.
The Gauchos will hit the road to take on UC Irvine on Thursday at 6 p.m.