March 24, 2004

By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer

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, the Gauchos lost to Texas Tech in Lubbock, and Texas sent them home the year before.

This time, the Gauchos were in the 6,500-seat Thunderdome, a cozy gym where they rarely lose and 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 second-seeded Connecticut 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 problem.

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-of-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."