{"id":135966,"date":"2026-01-16T09:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/135966\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T09:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:11:20","slug":"olivia-bradleys-big-finish-rallies-shorthanded-ucsb-women-past-cal-state-bakersfield-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/135966\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivia Bradley\u2019s Big Finish Rallies Shorthanded UCSB Women Past Cal State Bakersfield | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UC Santa Barbara women\u2019s basketball team had to play without two injured starters on Thursday.<\/p>\n

But it still had a great finisher in Olivia Bradley.<\/p>\n

The sophomore forward scored 19 of her career-high 27 points in the final 9\u00bd minutes to lead the Gauchos to an 82-67, comeback victory over Cal State Bakersfield at the Thunderdome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Liv wasn\u2019t in foul trouble, she probably would\u2019ve had 40 points,\u201d UCSB coach Renee Jimenez said. \u201cSuper clutch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory keeps the Gauchos (13-2, 5-1 Big West Conference) on the heels of co-leaders UC Irvine and UC San Diego (both 6-0) in the league race.<\/p>\n

Starting guards Maddie Naro and Skylar Burke sat out Thursday\u2019s game with injuries, limiting Jimenez to just nine available players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thin,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just really proud of this group. We knew it was going to be hard and that we were going to have to grind it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCSB out-shot Bakersfield (6-11, 1-6) 60.4% to 35.8%. The Gauchos, who came into the game ranked eighth nationally in three-point percentage (37.89%) and 12th in three-pointers per game (9.5), made 8-of-20 attempts (40%) on Thursday.<\/p>\n

But they still led just 34-33 in the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defense has to be better,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cWe gave up so much cheap stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t pretty, but this is how we have to win right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zoe Shaw started the second half with a trio of three-pointers to ignite a 10-2 run that took just two minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cZoe Shaw really stepped up into a leadership role with Maddie out and Skylar out, having to handle the ball at the point-guard spot,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cJust showing a lot of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaw finished with 14 points and three assists.<\/p>\n

\"ZoeZoe Borter (2) and Olivia Bradley (5) run a fast break during UCSB\u2019s basketball victory over Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday. Credit: Jeff Liang \/ UCSB Athletics Photo<\/p>\n

Zoe Borter contributed 20 points, five assists and four rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is just such a beast,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cIn the fourth quarter we told her, \u2018Hey, you might have to play some point guard.\u2019 And she said, \u2018No problem \u2026 Got ya.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just who she is and what she does. I\u2019m just so proud of her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe played 40 minutes. Jessica Grant played 40 minutes. We knew they were going to have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chrishawn Coleman rallied Bakersfield into the lead, 48-46, by scoring off a steal with 3:44 left in the third quarter. She led the Roadrunners with 27 points.<\/p>\n

A basket by UCSB freshman Chauncey Andersen tied the game, however. And then Bradley took over.<\/p>\n

\"JuliaJulia Puente-Valverde (4) is helped up by, from left, Olivia Bradley and Zoe Borter after getting knocked down while scoring a basket on Thursday. Zoe Shaw is at far right. Credit: Jeff Liang \/ UCSB Athletics Photo<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-1 forward scored nine points in the last 2:39 of the period, mostly on drives from the high post. She added 10 points in the first seven minutes of the final period to give the Gauchos a 76-63 lead with 3:47 to go.<\/p>\n

Bradley was a perfect 7-for-7 in the second half and 11-for-14 overall. She also had six rebounds and three assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe and Zoe (Borter) are just so hard to guard,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cThey\u2019re such a matchup nightmare for guards and too mobile for bigs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy for Liv and what she did. I know she was in foul trouble and kind of out of her rhythm, but we really challenged Liv to step up and be the guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she\u2019s shown that, game to game to game. She\u2019s really grown before our eyes, and that\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCSB out-rebounded Bakersfield 38-24, with Andersen and Julia Puente-Valverde getting 11 apiece.<\/p>\n

\u201cChauncey came off the bench and had to play 26 minutes, which she hasn\u2019t done all year,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cHuge rebounds, some big buckets, and just some great energy for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s kind of learning on the fly, so we\u2019re asking everyone to do a little bit more.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we can get some of those other guys back soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCSB will play at Hawai\u2019i on Saturday in a game that won\u2019t tip off until 9 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UC Santa Barbara women\u2019s basketball team had to play without two injured starters on Thursday. But it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-135966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}