Grant leads UCSB to upset win at UC Davis
DAVIS, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball team (10-7, 4-3 Big West) defeated top-seeded UC Davis on Saturday afternoon at the University Credit Union Center. After a slow start in the first quarter, the Gauchos took over with a dominant second quarter and would not allow the Aggies to regain the lead to the end, earning a 63-50 victory. Jessica Grant set a new career-high in points with 19 while going 7-for-8 on field goals.
FROM HEAD COACH RENEE JIMENEZ
"I am incredibly proud and happy for our team," said Jimenez. "We have had a really tough 48 hours where we had to really dig deep and figure out what type of team we want to be. We had some very intentional conversations as a team and I could not be more proud of how they came out and responded."
"We didn't give Davis our best game the last time we played and our goal was to come out, compete, defend, rebound and then let the chips fall where they may. If we can continue to grow and stack these types of games on top of each other, we will be really hard to beat."
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first few minutes began fairly scoreless on both sides. Defensive work by the Gauchos, including a block from Zoe Borter, kept the Aggies off the board for their first possessions. Davis pulled ahead 5-0 to start but was followed closely behind by Alyssa Marin's first three-pointer. Skylar Burke added two points for the Gauchos but the Aggies pulled away with an 8-0 scoring run. Santa Barbara wouldn't tally their next points until the final 90 seconds of the quarter, ending a nearly four-minute scoring drought with a 10-16 score at the end of ten minutes of play.
The second quarter saw an immense shift for the Gaucho momentum. The Santa Barbara defense would leave the Aggies without a single field goal the entire ten minutes before the half. The Blue and Gold went on a 15-0 run in the first six minutes with Jessica Grant and Borter tying up the match for the Gauchos. Grant let the two-point shots fly as Davis fell further behind. The Aggies got their first points on the board for the quarter from the charity stripe with four minutes remaining before the half. Marin would extend the Gauchos' lead to double-digits also from the line. Flora Goed got her first points up while coming up big on defense with two boards for the Gauchos. Borter beat the buzzer to end the first half with the Gauchos ahead 32-19.
The Gauchos kept the momentum coming out of the half. The Aggies would not get a field goal within the first five minutes of the half as the Gauchos cracked down on defense. Goed and Borter pushed Santa Barbara ahead but neither team would find many points in the first minutes. Davis got on a 6-0 run but would lose the points to Grant and Cayla Williams at the three-point line. As the Aggies tallied more points, Anya Choice kept the Gauchos' lead in double-digits until Davis found a layup to bring the score to 47-39 at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was all Grant. As she exchanged points with the Davis offense, Borter added another block to keep the Aggies at bay. Laurel Rockwood went to work in the paint, capitalizing on an offensive rebound. Marin added the final points from the free throw line for the Gauchos while Grant secured the win with her seventh three-pointer. The match would end with a 63-50 victory making the Gauchos only the second team in The Big West to take down the Aggies this season and the first to do so on the Aggies' home court.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Gauchos brought 44.4% of their points off the bench with Jessica Grant leading with 19 of the 28. Grant's previous career-high was 17 points on February 10, 2024.
Offensive power for the Gauchos was followed up by Zoe Borter and Alyssa Marin. Borter scored 16 points for the second time this week while securing eight boards for the Gauchos. Marin came up with 11 points for her 15th double-digit game of the season.
The Gauchos out-rebounded the Aggies 37-32. Skylar Burke led the Gauchos with nine grabs across the contest.
UP NEXT
The Gauchos return to the Thunderdome for both matches next week. The action begins on Thursday at 7 p.m. against UC San Diego. The match will be streamed on ESPN+ with live stats available on ucsbgauchos.com.
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)
