Titans snap 40 game skid to Gauchos, beat UCSB 46-38

Posted: Feb 28, 2013 10:52 PM by Andrew Masuda

History was made in a big way Thursday night at Titan Gym, as Cal State Fullerton knocked off UC Santa Barbara, 46-38, marking the Titans' first win over the Gauchos since 1995. For Fullerton (9-18, 5-10 Big West), the win signified the end of what was a 40-game losing streak, which was the second longest losing streak to a conference opponent in all of women's Division-I basketball coming into the game.

"This definitely means a lot," said a smiling head coach Marcia Foster after the win. "There have been a lot of players here at Cal State Fullerton and they've played some really good Santa Barbara teams, and tonight was no exception."

For UC Santa Barbara (12-15, 8-7 Big West), the loss was its third in the last four games, but it snapped what was a four-game road winning streak.

Alex Thomas and Chante Miles paced the Titans, each pouring in a team-high 11 points. Kathleen Iwuoha also did her part, as she grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds and put up eight points in the win.

Nicole Zesbit scored a game-high 12 points, but shot just 3-of-12 from the floor, as the only Gaucho to score in double figures. Four-time Big West Player of the Week Sweets Underwood grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds, but was held to just six points on 3-of-9 shooting.

The Titans mustered up one of their best defensive performances in years, as they forced 18 turnovers and held UC Santa Barbara to a historic low 38 points for the ballgame. The 38 points scored is least amount of points a Fullerton opponent has scored since Dayton was held to just 33 points on Dec. 4, 1987.

Fullerton led wire-to-wire, and already led 9-0 before UC Santa Barbara scored its first bucket with already 8:01 gone by in the contest.

Cal State Fullerton closed the game by connecting on 7-of-8 free throws inside of the final four minutes to ice the game for the Titans. For the game, Fullerton shot 21-of-25 from the free throw line for a season-high 84 percent.