It took a rewind of last Saturday’s defeat at Cal State Fullerton to get Zoe Shaw moving fast-forward for the UC Santa Barbara women’s basketball team.
The sophomore transfer from St. Bonaventure scored 29 points while making seven three-pointers — both career-highs — to lead the Gauchos to a 69-61 victory over UC Davis at the Thunderdome on Thursday.
UCSB coach Renee Jimenez had paid particular attention to Shaw’s 1-for-5 shooting during Saturday’s 62-60 loss at Fullerton as she replayed the video during the bus ride home.
“I went and watched every shot attempt, and I’m like, ‘This is not the same kid that I recruited,’” Jimenez said. “She just hasn’t shot the ball confidently and hasn’t been as aggressive as we thought.
“And so we watched a lot of videos this week, and we were like, ‘Look, Sky (Burke) is out … Maddie (Naro) is more of a facilitator … I’d like you to score more.’
“I just told her to be more aggressive, and so this is a huge game for her.”
It was also a big win for UCSB (16-5, 8-4 Big West Conference), which had lost last week’s two games by a combined total of five points.
The victory brings the Gauchos to within a game of third-place Davis (16-7, 9-3) and Fullerton (13-9, 9-3) in the league race.
“We just had so many games early in the year, those last-second ones, that went our way,” Jimenez said. “The Grand Canyons, the Chattanoogas, and then last week we kind of lived through the other side of it.
“It was a very somber week this week, I would say … so the kids really needed this.”
Second-place UC Irvine (18-4, 9-2), which is one game behind Big West leader UC San Diego (16-6, 11-1), will play host to UCSB on Saturday,
It became quickly apparent during the first quarter that Shaw would have to carry the load for the shorthanded Gauchos on Thursday. The 5-foot-7 guard made 2-of-3 threes during the period to score half of their points as UC Davis took a 14-12 lead.
Her teammates made just 3-of-16 shots in the quarter while missing all five of their threes.
Shaw had 14 points by halftime to put the Gauchos ahead, 31-23.
She added two more threes to start the second half, igniting an 11-3 run that gave UCSB its largest lead, 45-26, with 5:03 left in the third quarter.
For the game, Shaw made 7-of-13 threes while the rest of UCSB’s team made just 4-of-22.
“Hopefully this is a really big shift in confidence for her,” Jimenez said. “I’m really, really proud of her … She played 39 minutes tonight, so it was really impressive.”
Burke’s injury and Olivia Bradley’s bout with the flu also forced Jimenez to play Zoe Borter all 40 minutes. Naro logged 38 of her own.
Borter finished with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists while Naro added nine points and a team-high five assists.
Bradley, who had averaged 20 points in UCSB’s previous three games, did gut out 27 minutes on Thursday. She made consecutive baskets — a three and a runner — to fuel the Gauchos’ third-quarter outburst. She finished with seven points and five rebounds.
“We kept reminding her of the Michael Jordan flu game,” said Jimenez, referring to Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals when an ailing Jordan scored 38 points in a 90-88 victory over the Utah Jazz.
“I think you could tell that she wasn’t herself,” she added. “But just having her on the floor garners a lot of attention from other teams, and so it was super-gutsy for Liv to come out.
“At one point I asked her, ‘Can you move?’ And she was like, ‘What?’ … She couldn’t even hear.
“I saw her at halftime and her eyes were doing this (glazed-over look). Hopefully she can go home and sleep it off.”
Davis, which got 17 points from Ryann Bennett and 16 from Avery Sussex, rallied to within 47-38 by the end of the third quarter. UCSB had surrendered an 11-point lead in Saturday’s loss at Fullerton.
But Shaw’s driving basket sent UCSB off to a 22-point fourth period. She scored 12 points in the period.
“We’ve been getting eight-to-11-point leads, and we haven’t been able to get our foot on someone’s throats,” Jimenez said. “Last week we had those offensive droughts.
“We really worked on, ‘If we need a bucket, what can we go to? Who do we go to?’
“We worked on some game situations this week that I thought really carried over well for us tonight.”
The Gauchos out-shot the Aggies 38.7% to 31.7% overall and 31.4% to 18.8% from the three-point line. They also held their own on the backboards, trailing Davis just 44-40. Aggies’ center Megan Norris, who ranks third nationally with a rebound average of 12.3, grabbed 13 missed shots on Thursday.
“We figured that if we could get 38 or more rebounds, we’d give ourselves a good chance to control the pace and tempo of the game,” Jimenez said. “We got 40.”
She said Burke, last year’s Big West Hustle Player of the Year, is close to making her return. She’s missed seven games since injuring her leg. Her injury came on the heels of Naro’s return from a shoulder injury.
“We haven’t had our whole team since January 1st, but Monday will be really exciting … and possibly Saturday,” Jimenez said. “We’re seeing if Sky is getting ready to go here. Next week, we’ll hopefully be looking like that team that started 10-1.”