Burke scores career-high 25 points as UCSB wins at Long Beach State

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Skylar Burke picked a perfect day to snap her five-game single-digit-scoring streak and did so in a big way, dropping a career-high 25 points in a double-double that led her UC Santa Barbara Women's Basketball team (12-9, 6-5 Big West) to a 77-68 win over Long Beach State (11-9, 7-4 Big West) inside Walter Pyramid Saturday afternoon. Burke shot a perfect 9-of-9 from the floor and gobbled up 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. Jessica Grant added 13 points on the day, and Olivia Bradley registered her first double-digit scoring performance in Big West action with another 10. Cayla Williams had 10 rebounds as well as eight points for the Gauchos.
FROM HEAD COACH RENEE JIMENEZ
"That might have been our grittiest and toughest win of the season," Jimenez said. "We went into two really tough environments on the road this week and were able to secure two big wins. The players keep showing up every week ready to learn and get better, and that's all we can ask from them as coaches."
HOW IT HAPPENED
Santa Barbara hardly got off to a rip-roaring start on Saturday, as it took over five minutes for the Gauchos' first field goal to fall, though they were still very much in the game by the time it happened. Defensively, Santa Barbara had held Long Beach State to just nine points in those first five minutes and change, and the Gauchos — one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the country — stayed close thanks to multiple trips to the line. And once the field goals started falling, the Gaucho offense was up and running, with Burke setting the pace. She not only got Santa Barbara's first point of the game from the charity stripe, but she also had their first made field goal of the afternoon as part of her nine-point first quarter. As a team, the Gauchos had 24 points after the opening 10 minutes and, more importantly, a seven-point lead over their hosts.
Santa Barbara extended their lead in the second quarter, going up by as many as 17 on a Bradley jumper down low. Like they did on Thursday at CSUN, the Gauchos found success by attacking the rim and working inside the arc, where they shot 50% (17-of-34) on Saturday. Again, it was Burke pacing the offense, scoring eight more points in the frame to finish the first half with 17, while also playing conductor, dishing out three assists in the second quarter alone. She set up both of the Gauchos' three-point makes in the frame, one for Grant and one for Zoe Borter, then drained two free throws with just seconds left before halftime to give the Blue and Gold a 46-33 lead at the break.
Santa Barbara started the third quarter like they did the first, which is to say, without much scoring, but the defense held the Beach to just seven points until Grant drained another three-pointer to get the offense going again. It was a back-and-forth quarter, with the Gauchos preventing Long Beach from putting together any significant runs and protecting their double-digit lead, which grew to 16 points by the end of the frame. It was another late Burke basket that brought the margin up to that number, the junior splitting the defense for a buzzer-beating layup. At the horn, the score was 65-49 in favor of Santa Barbara.
The 16-point cushion proved necessary in the fourth, the only quarter in which the Gauchos failed to out-score the Beach — The Big West's top-scoring offense — on the day. After a Bradley turned an offensive rebound into a layup with 8:45 left to play, the Gauchos did not score another point until there were 56 seconds remaining on the clock. However, like during the cold spells of the first and third quarters, Santa Barbara's defense stepped up and kept the Beach at bay. During the Gauchos' nearly eight-minute scoreless period, Long Beach State scored just six points. Santa Barbara's defensive effort meant that, ahead by nine in the final minute, it was just a matter of making free throws, something that the Gauchos do better than almost anybody in the country. Santa Barbara went 10-of-12 from the charity stripe in the final 60 seconds to complete the 77-68 victory.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Gauchos scored 24 points in the first quarter of Saturday's game and 22 more in the second. Not only is it their second game in a row with multiple 20-point quarters (let alone consecutive ones), it made for a stretch of four straight 20-point quarters going back to Thursday's win at CSUN.
Free throws played a major role throughout Saturday's game, not just down the stretch. Santa Barbara out-shot Long Beach significantly, going 28-of-36 from the line to the Beach's 11-of-22. That disparity helped The Gauchos overcome a deficit in both field goals made (22 to Long Beach's 26) and rebounds (40 to 46).
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)