SANTA BARBARA, Calif. The University of Nevada women’s basketball team saw its three-game win streak snapped at UC Santa Barbara Friday night, falling at UCSB 59-37. With the loss, Nevada falls to 4-4 on the year while UC Santa Barbara 2-3.
Nevada has a slow start to the game as the Pack turned the ball over on its first six trips down the court. During that span, UC Santa Barbara opened the game on a 9-0 run before Dellena Criner’s three cut UCSB’s lead to 9-3 with 16:22 remaining.
UC Santa Barbara extended used a 21-0 run to extend its lead to 30-5 with 7:21 left in the first half. Brandi Jones scored on consecutive possessions for Nevada to bring the score to 34-12 with four minutes left in the first half. However, the Pack was held without another point over the remaining four minutes in the half as UC Santa Barbara took a 38-12 lead at half time.
The Pack shot just 17 percent (5-of-29) from the floor in the first half while the Gauchos shot 68 percent (15-of-22). Jones led Nevada at the half with seven points while Lauren Pedersen led UC Santa Barbara with 13.
In the second half, Nevada pulled to 40-20 on a three pointer by Ward with 16:35 remaining in the game. Nevada cut UC Santa Barbara’s lead to 18 points as Johnna Ward scored off a quick layup from an inbounds pass from Criner coming out of a timeout.
For the game, Jones led Nevada with 11 points while Shavon Moore led the Pack with eight rebounds. Pederson led UCSB with a game-high 15 points. As a team, Nevada shot 24 percent (14-of-59) from the floor while UC Santa Barbara ended the game shooting 47 percent.
Nevada will play at UCLA on Sunday at 2 p.m.
