UCSB Punches Ticket to Anaheim with Victory at UCI
STEVEN WILSON
News-Press Correspondent
IRVINE – It looked bleak early, but
it ended exactly the way they wanted – with a win. The third time was a charm
for the UCSB womens basketball team as they earned a 61-51 victory over UC
Irvine in the first round of the Big West Tournament on Tuesday night at the
Bren Events Center to advance to the semifinals matchup against Pacific held in
Anaheim on Friday.
“I
just know that I am used to playing in March,” UCSB coach Carlene Mitchell
said. “I don’t know any different since I don’t have anything to compare it to.
I am used to playing in tournaments for one or two rounds. I am used to the
NCAA (Tournament) and that’s what I expect.”
Mitchell’s
confidence carried over to the team, but not right away.
UCSB – which lost both regular
season games to UCI – did not come out sharp despite knowing it was
win-or-go-home. The Gauchos did not score a basket for the first six and a half
minutes and committed eight turnovers.
“I
refused to go down that way,” Mitchell said. “That’s why I subbed the five (new
players) in.… I’m proud of the second team for setting the tone for basically
how we played the rest of the game.”
The substitution worked as UCSB
forced 10 Anteater turnovers before halftime. After trailing 8-0, and 16-6, the
Gauchos would go on a 14-4 run to tie the game with a layup from Melissa
Zornig.
“In the beginning it just wasn’t
very pretty,” senior Kelsey Adrian said. “A couple players stepped up, especially
(Zornig) and we needed that.”
Zornig
had a game-high 15 points, but after she tied the game at 20-20, the Anteaters
would respond. They took a 24-20 lead with a fast break layup from Methlyn
Onogomuho.
UCSB would tie the game a minute
later with a layup from Angelei Aguirre as she sank a baseline drive layup. UCI
netted one more basket to take a 26-24 lead into halftime.
“Because
of my competitive nature, I just told them we are going to win,” Mitchell said
to her team at the break. “There were small things and adjustments that I knew
we needed to make, but at the end of the day I knew we were going to go to the
Honda Center.”
Despite
shooting 52 percent from the field in the first half the Anteaters had only
managed a two-point lead. Those shooting numbers fell in the second half. The
Gaucho defense clamped down on UCI, holding them to just 30 percent from the
floor in the second half.
UCSB
also shut down the Anteaters best scoring threat – Kassandra McCalister. The
UCI guard had just two points in the first half and totaled just five points in
the game on 2-of-7 shooting.
“She
really lit us up last game and we didn’t want to let her do that again,” Adrian
said. “We just had to be physical with her and not let her get any easy shots.”
UCSB took its first lead of the
game with 18:45 left thanks to a 3-point play from Sweets Underwood. That’s
when Zornig took over.
The sophomore guard sank four
consecutive baskets for the Gauchos to earn a 35-33 lead with 13:43 left. Two
minutes later, Nicole Nesbit would come off the bench for UCSB and sank her
only two buckets of the game to earn a 39-33 lead with 11:35 left.
“On
the offensive end of things we had balanced scoring, which helps, but it
definitely wasn’t our best game,” Mitchell said.
UCSB
would earn its largest lead of the night – 11 points – with just 33 seconds
left as Emilie Johnson made two of her eight free throws, all of which came
with less than two minutes left.
“It
was a sigh of relief,” Johnson said. “I am excited for this team and I want to
see more. I want to see my teammates cut down nets.”
UCSB
could get revenge against Pacific and they hope third time is the charm once
again, but this time in the semifinals.
“We all hope we play them because
we want to get them back,” Zornig said. “We know the last two times we played
them we did not play our game and now, we’re finally coming together as a team.
No matter who we get, we’re going to come out and fight and get the W.
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