STEVEN WILSON
News-Press Correspondent
After
a convincing 20-point victory over UC Riverside last weekend at home, the
Gauchos were ready to take some of that momentum on the road Thursday night at
Long Beach State. It took nearly the entire game, but the Gauchos got it done.
They weren’t going for the win though, that was long lost as the 49ers blew out
the Gauchos, 46-34. They were instead trying to score more than 33 points to
avoid their lowest scoring total in team history.
“It’s
disappointing,” UCSB coach Carlene Mitchell said. “We went into the game
talking about consistency, and a sense of urgency. We had a great shoot-around,
but truly as a coach, it’s hard to judge kids. I thought we were focused and
ready to play. It’s just in the beginning of the game the starters didn’t do
what I asked them, which is setting the tone on both ends of the court.”
The
Gauchos, who never earned a lead in the game, were scoreless for the opening
three minutes and found themselves down, 6-0. By halftime that lead was at ten,
and it was like there was a lid covering the rim on UCSB’s side of the court.
Out of the 10 players who entered
the game for the Gauchos, only three of them made a basket before the half, and
no one had made more than two.
“For
the most part tonight, I thought the right people we taking the shots,”
Mitchell said. “I think we took good shots, and I think we have a better
understanding of our offense. We just couldn’t get them to fall.”
Three Gaucho stars contributed to
the shooting woes as Kelsey Adrian, Emilie Johnson and Sweets Underwood
combined, shot 0-for-12 from the floor before halftime.
“I
think we did a nice job defensively tonight,” Long Beach State coach Jody Wynn
said. “We gave up too many offensive boards, even though I think we were
positioned correctly on defense.”
The
Gauchos had managed five offensive rebounds in the first half, but had only two
second-chance points. Overall, they were shooting a miserable 20 percent from
the field on 6-of-29 shooting.
“We
were getting all the shots that we wanted – layups, 10, 15-footers, but they
just weren’t going in,” sophomore guard Nicole Nesbit said. “I think, for us,
that was hurting us more mentally. It wasn’t anything Long Beach was doing, it
was us killing ourselves.”
The
Gauchos would not post any significant comeback in the second half and
continued to struggle to make shots. They fell behind by 13, then by 16, then
even by as much as 19.
“It
felt like we were fighting,” Nesbit said. “We would scramble and scramble. We’d
get a trap, we’d get a tip, then they’d grab it and get a three. We would try
to get a rebound and it would slip off someone’s hands and they’d be right
there to get a wide-open layup.”
Nesbit
who led the team with 11 points was the only bright spot for UCSB in the second
half.
“I
was just trying to do my best to motive my team,” she said. “It’s hard when you
come out of halftime and you’re down 10. It’s hard to get out there and play
with the same kind of fight when the game was 0-0.”
Even
though they held the 49ers to 46 points – a much lower number than their
average of 65 – the Gauchos offense would not let them catch up.
“At
some point you have to have the focus to knock down the easy, wide-open shots,”
Mitchell said. “I’m sorry, but you’re a Division-I athlete.”
UCSB
will need to get over this loss quickly as they face one of the best teams in
the Big West, Cal State Northridge, on Saturday.
“We
just need to use this game as fuel to the fire so to speak,” Nesbit said. “To
me, this was embarrassing. We knew we were prepared, but this kind of effort
was hard, it was just hard. We have to let this one go and give all we have to
Northridge.”
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