Overview:
Maddie Naro scores 18 points and adds three steals while helping the Gauchos force the Spartans into 25 turnovers
SAN JOSÉ — Four days after beating Grand Canyon University in the final seconds, Zoe Borter led UC Santa Barbara’s women’s basketball team out of a hole as deep as … the Grand Canyon.
Borter scored 22 points to rally the Gauchos from a 16-point deficit to a 15-point victory, 75-60, at San José State on Wednesday.
Her only points on Saturday came on a basket that beat Grand Canyon, 72-70, with just eight seconds remaining.
“When you look at that Grand Canyon game, it was like a no-brainer to go to her at the end of it because she’s so solid,” UCSB coach Renee Jimenez said. “I didn’t even realize until after that game that she was 0-for to that point.
“Then she turns around and has a night like tonight where she does a little bit of everything … She really got us going in that second quarter.”
The Gauchos (4-1) shot just 14% in the first period (2-for-14) but made a respectable 43.1% after that, which included 40.9% (9-for-22) from three-point range.
“Our team has done a really good job of playing possession-to-possession, and not getting caught up in being up or being down,” Jimenez said. “The same thing happened with Grand Canyon.”
They survived an early dry spell of eight-plus minutes in which the Spartans used a 21-2 run to turn a 5-2 deficit into a 23-7 lead early in the second quarter.
The Gauchos made just 2-of-17 baskets with six turnovers to that point.
“We were missing layups, missing threes,” Jimenez said. “They had a lot of momentum.”
San José (0-3), which was making its home debut after road losses at BYU and Cal Baptist, was led by Maya Anderson, who scored nine of her 12 points in the first period.
The game took an abrupt turn on Borter’s three-pointer with 7:50 left in the second quarter. It triggered a run of 21-3 that put UCSB ahead 28-26 with just under two minutes left in the first half.
Borter scored 12 of the Gauchos’ 25 points in the second period. She made 4-of-8 threes (6-of-14 field goals overall) in the game and also had three assists and two steals.
“Zoe is such a steady presence on the court,” Jimenez said. “She’s just that steady-Eddie guy for us. She affects the game in so many ways.”
San José briefly reclaimed its lead, 33-32, on Gabriela Pato’s basket just before halftime.
But Borter put UCSB right back ahead by scoring eight more points in the third quarter.
Maddie Naro, a junior transfer from Santa Clara, added seven of her 18 points in the period to help UCSB surge to a 53-42 lead.
“Her whole life, Maddie has grown up to be a distributing point guard,” Jimenez said. “She came here, and we were like, ‘No, we want you to score, we want you to shoot.’
“So she’s really had to change her mindset.
“She’ll have games where she does this and can go for 18, and then she’ll have a game where she has seven assists with just one turnover and has eight points. Those can affect you the same.”
Naro also spearheaded a defensive effort which forced six Spartan turnovers in the third quarter.
“We got a little bit too tight, but once we got a little more disciplined in our gaps, it gave them some fits,” Jimenez said. “They traveled a few times and we were able to get our hands on a few balls.
“We just tried to play more cohesively instead of one-on-one on defense. I think that really rattled them.”
San José’s six turnovers in the quarter led directly to nine of UCSB’s 21 points in that period.
“That gave us great momentum,” Jimenez said. “We got five or six stops in a row to start the quarter, which was huge for us.”
The Gauchos rebounded from their dreadful first quarter … by also rebounding.
They edged the Spartans in rebounds over the last three periods, 29-28, after getting overwhelmed 13-7 in the first quarter.
Olivia Bradley had six rebounds to go with 11 points. Skylar Burke and Julia Puente-Valverde also had six rebounds apiece.
“It still comes down to rebounding for us,” Jimenez said. “We were in a pretty big rebounding deficit the first half, and then we kind of chipped away at it and chipped away at it.
“If we can get a rebound and get out, we’re pretty good in transition, and that led to some threes which kind of got us going.”
Jessica Grant helped finish off the Spartans in the fourth quarter by making all three of her three-point attempts. The first one gave UCSB its biggest lead of 63-44 with eight minutes to go.
The Gauchos will remain on the road for five more games. Saturday’s home date with Westcliff University of Irvine was canceled due to the Warriors’ “roster limitations.” Jimenez said it won’t be rescheduled.
“We just don’t have time on our schedule,” she said. “We tried to get another game there, but it just didn’t work out.
“We’re a little bit thin right now without Martha Pietsch, and our freshmen are still coming along and learning new things, so I think we’re OK not playing it.”
UCSB won’t return to action until after Thanksgiving when it plays at the CBU Classic in Riverside.
The Gauchos will face the host team, Cal Baptist, on Friday, November 28, at noon.
Their second game will be against either Sacramento State or Chattanooga on Saturday, November 29, at a time to be determined later.
An early start to Big West Conference play will come with games at Long Beach State on December 4 and Cal State Bakersfield on Dec. 6.
“This kind of closes one chapter of our goals, which was to go 4-1 to start,” Jimenez said. “Now we go five straight on the road, and that will really be a great test for us before we come home on December 18th (to play Eastern Washington).
“So we’ll be road warriors, for sure.”