Overview:
Gaucho women have lost three of their last four games entering tournament play
HENDERSON, Nev. — UC Santa Barbara will be aiming for its first Big West Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament championship in more than a decade when it plays UC Davis for the second time in less than a week in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
Tipoff at the Dollar Loan Center will be at 2:30 p.m. The game will be live on ESPN+ and SiriusXM station 381.
The Gaucho men (24-7, 15-5 Big West), seeded second, will play their opener on Thursday at 6 p.m. against Cal Poly. The 10th-seeded Mustangs ended an 18-game losing streak by upsetting No. 7 Long Beach State 88-68 in Tuesday’s opening round of the tournament.
Wednesday’s women’s quarterfinal between fifth-seeded UCSB (19-11, 12-8 Big West) and the fourth-seeded Aggies (16-13, 12-7) will match two teams that have been headed in opposite directions.
The Gauchos have lost three of their last four games, which included an 80-59 blowout defeat to Davis at the Thunderdome last Thursday. The Aggies have won five of their last six including their last three in a row.
UC Davis lives and dies from the three-point line. It leads the Big West and ranks 28th in the country with 8.2 makes per game.
First-team all-leaguer Evanne Turner, a 5-foot-9 guard and the Aggies’ leading scorer with a 15.1-point average, has made 77 threes this season. Tova Sabel, a 5-11 forward, has chipped in with 50 while averaging 11.8 points.
The Gauchos have not shot the three-pointer well, making just 30.1% of their attempts this season. They have been good around the basket with a pair of first-team all-leaguers: 5-11 junior Alexis Tucker (13.7 points, 5.9 rebounds per game) and 6-4 senior Ila Lane (11.7 points, 8.3 rebounds).
The winner will play in Friday’s noon semifinal against the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 1 UC Irvine and No. 9 Cal State Bakersfield.
UCSB’s last Big West women’s title came in 2012 when it defeated Long Beach State 63-54 in the final.