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The UCSB women’s basketball team closed out the regular season with a 58-52 loss at Hawaii on Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The Gauchos (15-11, 9-8) will now take the No. 5 seed into Wednesday’s Big West Tournament Quarterfinals to face No. 4 UC Riverside.
Junior center Ila Lane played every minute for the second time in her career, notching her fourth straight double-double with 11 points and a season-high 18 rebounds. It was her ninth straight game scoring in double-figures and the fifth time in her career she pulled in at least 18 rebounds.
For the second straight game, Alexis Tucker led UCSB in scoring. The junior guard scored 14 points on 4-of-7 from the field and had a team-high two steals.
Senior point guard Danae Miller made it six straight games with at least two three-pointers, scoring 13 points and dishing out two assists. She now has 438 career assists, moving her past Debby Caine (1998-2003) for No. 5 all-time at UCSB.
The only player to score off the bench was sophomore Anya Choice, who had an efficient shooting night for eight points on a 2-of-3 mark from three-point range.
1ST HALF
Santa Barbara led 7-2 after a three-point play by Tucker, who scored seven straight Gaucho points in the opening minutes. That would be UCSB’s largest lead of the night.
Hawaii (17-9, 13-3) led 12-11 after one and used a 9-0 run late in the half to go up by double-digits for the first time, 32-22 on a fast break and-1 by guard Ashley Thoms.
2ND HALF
The Rainbow Wahine run extended to 16-2 early in the third quarter as they went up 39-24. The Gauchos scored the final six points of the quarter to cut it back to single digits. Anya Choice hit one of her two three-pointers and converted a layup in the final minute to make it a 43-34 game heading into the fourth.
Hawaii pushed the lead back up to 14 to open the final period, but UCSB once again inched closer with a 7-0 run to make it 48-41 at the 5:44 mark.
Danae Miller’s triple with 2:17 brought the Gauchos within five and Lane made it a one-possession game, 52-49 on a second chance bucket in the paint with 1:26 to go.
Amy Atwell hit a crucial driving layup with just under a minute to go to make it 54-49 and the Rainbow Wahine made their last four free throws to ice the game.
The Gauchos will look to defeat UC Riverside for the first time this season on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev.
Michael Jorgenson writes about sports for UCSB.
email: sports@newspress.com
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