It was not a pretty finish, but in the end, the UCSB women’s basketball team nailed enough clutch shots, knocked down enough free throws and made enough plays to defeat Pepperdine 71-63 in its home opener at the Thunderdome Thursday night.
With the win, the Gauchos remain unbeaten at 2-0, their first 2-0 in the Bonnie Henrickson era. UCSB was led offensively by senior forward Ila Lane, who finished with 16 points and six rebounds.
Senior guard Taylor Mole and freshman guard Jessica Grant also finished in double figures, closing with 14 and 10 points, respectively, combining to hit seven of the Gauchos eight total 3s made in the contest.
Pepperdine fell to 0-2 with the loss.
“Our depth is strong,” Henrickson told Noozhawk. “It was key tonight.”
“We didn’t get everybody with the same pop they had the other night at Santa Clara, but we will. We want to be able to have the luxury of going deep in the bench and have no drop-off, and we didn’t get that from everyone tonight.
“But we will be there. It’s early, but I like what I see. We’ve got a lot to clean up, but I like how we handled that.”
To be fair, although the finish wasn’t pretty, the first two quarters sure were for the home team.
UCSB started the game off hot, running out to a 10-2 lead with Lane knocking down two of her first three shots of the contest.
After taking an eight-point lead into the second quarter, the Gauchos got a pair of 3s from Mole, to extend that lead to 14 at 21-7.
Mole was hot from beyond the arc, knocking down 4-of-6 from 3-point range en rout to her 14-point effort, and adding a pair of rebounds and assists.
Pepperdine would cut the lead down to nine with 1:57 left to go in the first half, but then the Gauchos went on a huge 12-0 run right before the half, which included six points from Lane and a 3 from Grant and senior transfer Tatyana Modawar, to take a 38-17 halftime lead.
As a team, the Gauchos were 8-for-18 from the 3-point line. Grant went 3-for-4 from deep while Modawar made her only look from deep.
“When we’re in rhythm and we have money passes and money footwork, we shoot really well,” Henrickson said.
“We’re good about letting go of the ball and finding the best players. And for us, the best player is an open player, so I thought we had good rhythm and found open shooters. And those teams are hard to beat and fun to play on, and fun to coach.”
The two teams traded baskets for half of the third, but out of a media timeout and the Gauchos leading 49-28, the Waves decided to switch to a full-court press.
That switch gave the Gauchos all sorts of trouble, as over the final 4:47, UCSB would commit eight of its 19 turnovers on the night.
For Pepperdine, the pressure allowed them to cook up some easy baskets. Suddenly, by the end of the quarter, the lead was down to just seven at 51-44 after the Waves leading scorer, Marly Walls, drove the ball down the lane for a floater before the end of the frame.
“That pressure was intense,” Alyssa Marin, UCSB’s junior point guard, told Noozhawk.
“Pepperdine, they’re big, they’re tall, they’re strong, and they’re very, very fast, so navigating through all that was hectic.
“But we were able calm down, and I think we did a really good job toward the end.”
Henrickson said the team hadn’t practiced against the full-court press so far this season, but that Thursday’s lesson would be “good for us.”
“We just got sloppy and undisciplined, and they got more and more and more aggressive,” Henrickson said.
Pepperdine cut the lead down to as low as five in the final frame, but with 5:51 in the frame, Marin took the ball coast-to-coast and scored a huge layup, drawing the foul for the 1-and-1.
On the next possession, a steal by Marin and a great no-look assist to Tucker would suddenly put the Gauchos right back up by 10.
“That moment was awesome,” Marin said. “It was getting hectic, and Pepperdine was working really hard against us. “But we’ve practiced this over and over again, late game situations, so we all came together.”
Marin along with sophomore guard Callie Cooper are sharing point guard duties this year following the departure of Danae Miller to graduation.
Marin finished the contest with nine points and a game-high five assists for the second game in a row while Cooper finished with four assists.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t handle that press better, but they (Marin and Cooper) will learn from it and we all will,” Henrickson said.
“Danae always had the ball in the last four minutes of the game. Now it’s different. They’ve watched her always have the ball in her hands but now it’s on them, and we’ll clean it up. … They’ve embraced this challenge.”
Following Marin’s five-point sprint, Pepperdine cut it down to as low as six one more time, but the Gauchos would sink 7 of their last 10 free throws to eventually ice the contest.
“For me, I really want to work on my maturity and leadership the most as we go along this season,” Marin said.
“We have a lot of really, really good shooters, so a really big thing for me is to be able to get the ball to them and I want to do that confidently.”
UCSB will take on Idaho State at the Thunderdome Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m.