SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- UC Santa Barbara had come close to
reaching the final 16 twice before, only to get dismissed by a team
from Texas.
Last year, they lost to Texas Tech in Lubbock. The year before
that Texas sent them home.
This time, the Gauchos were in the 6,500-seat Thunderdome, a
cozy gym where they rarely lose and they enjoy boisterous crowd
support.
The result was a 56-52 upset of third-seeded Houston on Monday
night that put them in the final 16 for the first time.
"It's a great accomplishment for our program, for this team,''
said coach Mark French, who's in his 17th season. "It's hard for
me to be a whole lot happier than I am right now.''
The 11th-seeded Gauchos (27-6) will play either second-seeded
Connecticut or seventh-seeded Auburn in Saturday's East Regional
semifinals in Hartford, Conn.
"We've talked a lot about the mountains we wanted to climb this
year and getting through this one was one of the mountains,''
French said.
"Now we've got another one looming in front of us in
Connecticut that we're eager to climb.''
The Gauchos won the Big West regular season and tournament
titles after enduring some early season bumps.
They fell out of the Associated Press rankings in December after
appearing for 22 consecutive weeks. That same month, they had their
27-game home winning streak snapped in a loss to Ohio State.
"They didn't point fingers at each other. They were willing to
accept the really tough practices that we had during that time
frame,'' French said.
"They hung tough and they didn't get down when our expectations
that we had weren't realized early in the year.''
Losses weren't the only problems.
Junior Autumn Nichols suffered a season-ending knee injury in
November and junior Roshawn Perkins left the team in January
because of chronic back pain.
"This year has been a difficult one at times, but we stuck
together,'' said Lisa Willett, who made one of two free throws late
in Monday's game.
"We pulled out something that we'll all remember for a really
long time, so it's definitely very, very sweet.''
Lindsay Taylor, a 6-foot-8 senior, had 20 points and 10 rebounds
against Houston after scoring just nine points and fouling out in
the first round against Colorado.
"She's a big-time player. She changes the game,'' Houston coach
Joe Curl said. "It did kind of scare me that they were so dominant
the other day without her playing.''
Houston's Sancho Lyttle was held to 15 points on 7-for-19
shooting before fouling out, thanks in part to Taylor's defense.
"It's different when you have to shoot the ball over somebody
who's not only 6-8, but has the timing and athleticism that Lindsay
does,'' French said. "She probably changed a lot of the arc on a
lot of those shots that Sancho usually puts in.''
Now, the Gauchos have to travel to Connecticut, where they won't
have their usual rabid fan support.
No matter what happens, French is grateful to seniors Taylor,
April McDivitt and Willett for getting the Gauchos this far.
"They will remember this for the rest of their lives,'' he
said. "I'm very proud that I'll have this group of women to talk
about on down the road.''