SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The UC Irvine women's basketball team earned a hard-fought 64-60 victory over UC Santa Barbara in both teams' Big West opener Sunday evening at The Thunderdome.
 
The Anteaters, who led for 34 minutes, were able to hold off UCSB with an impressive performance on the boards and at the free throw line. The 'Eaters finished with a season-high 49 rebounds. They held a dominant 22-to-9 advantage on the offensive glass and outscored the Gauchos, 19-2, in second-chance points. UCI also had its best performance of the season at the charity stripe where it was 17-for-21.
 
"I'm really proud of the effort from my team, they fought hard," said head coach Tamara Inoue. "At the end of the game, we knew UCSB was going to shoot the three, especially with Danae Miller and Doris Jones, but I thought we did a good job of rebounding to finish the game. I'm also really proud of our free throws. We've been struggling all year, but our players have been getting in the gym, and shooting 81% is where we need to be."
 
BY THE NUMBERS: Redshirt freshman Kayla Williams led the way with a season-high tying 24 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists. Sophomore Chloe Webb registered her second career double-double with 12 points and 10 boards, while sophomore Sophia Locandro had nine points and a season-best 11 rebounds.
 
Senior Tahlia Garza also notched seven points, six rebounds, two steals and one block. Sophomore Jayde Cadee added five points, and senior Dani Guglielmo contributed five points, seven boards and three assists.
 
The Anteaters shot 31% from the field, but held the Gauchos to 36%. Danae Miller paced UCSB with 18 points, while Taylor Mole (15 points, 12 rebounds) and Bri Anugwom (10 points, 10 rebounds) both had a double-double.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED: UC Irvine (3-4, 1-0 Big West) jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first two minutes as Williams opened the scoring with a couple free throws, and Webb followed with a traditional three-point play. UC Santa Barbara then proceeded to go on an 11-2 run to pull ahead, 11-7, at the 5:02 mark. The Anteaters regrouped at the media timeout as they came out of the break with a 10-0 rally, capped by a Cadee triple, to go on top, 17-11, with 1:18 remaining. The Gauchos would get the final bucket of the first quarter to close the gap to four.
 
UCI stayed out front in the second period, going up, 23-17, on a putback by Guglielmo with 4:51 to go. UCSB then started to chip away and eventually cut the deficit to 27-25 on an and-1 by Anugwom at the end of the first half.
 
It went back-and-forth early in the third frame with a couple tie scores before the 'Eaters used a 10-0 spurt to take their largest lead of the night at 39-29. Miller answered with back-to-back triples for UC Santa Barbara, but UC Irvine would outscore the Gauchos, 6-3, over the final four minutes to increase its margin to 45-38.
 
UCSB (0-4, 0-1 Big West) made it a two-point game (54-52) on a 3-pointer by Doris Jones midway through the fourth quarter. Williams then scored the next six points for the Anteaters to put them ahead, 60-54, with one minute on the clock. The Gauchos made a couple threes down the stretch, but the 'Eaters refused to relinquish the lead as they were able to knock down their free throws for the 64-60 victory.
 
UP NEXT: UC Irvine will look to complete the regular-season series sweep at UC Santa Barbara tomorrow as the two teams are set to square off again at 5 p.m. on ESPN3.
 
 
NOTES
• UC Irvine snapped a five-game losing streak in The Thunderdome with its first win in Santa Barbara since 2015.
• It was the first win at UCSB for Tamara Inoue as both a head coach at UCI and as a player at Long Beach State.
• The Anteaters played their first Big West game on the road for the third-straight year.
• They won their conference opener for the second time during that stretch.
• This is UCI's second game that has been decided by less than 10 points this season.
• Kayla Williams had her second 20-point performance in seven career games played.
• She has reached double figures in every outing and is averaging a team-best 15.9 ppg.
• Chloe Webb, who had her second 10+ rebound game, is tops on the squad with 7.3 rpg.
• Jayde Cadee has made a 3-pointer in 16-straight games.