Jan. 27, 2007

Box Score

Santa Barbara, Calif. - The Pacific women's basketball team could not overcome a record night from behind the arc by UC Santa Barbara, falling to the Gauchos 89-55 on Saturday, January 27. The Gauchos hit 14-of-18 shots from distance, hitting at a .778 clip on the night.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 7-14 overall on the year and 1-6 in conference action while UC Santa Barbara improved to 11-9 overall and 5-2 in the Big West.

The Gauchos took control almost immediately on their home court, capturing a lead at 7-5 just before the first official's timeout that they would never relinquish throughout the remainder of the contest. In the first half, the Tigers trailed by as much as 16 points as the Gauchos caught fire from behind the arc, scoring on seven of their nine attempts from distance in the half.

Despite being down double figures for much of the half, the Tigers had a chance to cut the lead to just eight points in the waning seconds of the opening half, but a missed jumper resulted in a transition opportunity for UC Santa Barbara that was capped off by a buzzer beating three-pointer by Chisa Ononiwu. The Tigers kept within striking distance for much of the first half due to the strong play on both ends of the court by senior Jerise Freeman (Wichita, Kan.). Freeman scored seven first half points to lead the Tigers.

Down 13 points at the break, the Tigers were unable to slow down the offense of the Gauchos to start the second half as UC Santa Barbara opened the final half with a 11-4 run, pushing their lead to 20, a mark that Pacific would not be able to crack the rest of the game.

In the second half, the Gauchos were able to use their outside shooting (7-of-10 in the half) to open up the scoring lanes for penetration as they posted the most points on the Tigers this season at 89 and handed the Tigers their largest loss of the season at 34 points.

Freeman continued to push the tempo in the second half for the Tigers as she finished the game with a season-high 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Freeman also added seven rebounds, three assists and three steals to the cause and sophomore Karen Dawkins (Colorado Springs, Colo.) posted 21 points in the contest on 10-of-13 shooting as she came on strong in the final 10 minutes of the game after scoring four first half points.

Ononiwu finished the contest with a career-high 29 points as she posted nine field goals, six of which came from behind the arc. Behind Ononiwu, Jessica Wilson scored 17 points in the contest including hitting all three of her three-point attempts while Whitney Warren scored 14 points on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting day from the field.

Pacific's road loss marks the 20th straight road conference loss for the Tigers dating back to December 30, 2004.

Pacific heads home for a pair of games as the Tigers host UC Irvine at the Alex G. Spanos Center on Thursday, February 1, followed by Long Beach State on Saturday, February 3. Both games are scheduled for 7:00 pm.