Already lee, UC Irvine Women Beat UCSB in the final of the regular season – Orange County Register

IRVINE – A second consecutive price of player of the year of the Big West Conference will probably not happen for the leader UC Irvine already, but she would exchange this award for another trip to the NCAA tournament anyway.

Lee played his last regular season game for the Antisers on Saturday afternoon and contributed a little of everything in the 62-49 victory against UC Santa Barbara at the Bren Events Center.

Lee finished with a 13 -point summit, seven rebounds and five assists while committing a single turnover.

“Five assists and a turnover. I’m going to take it all day, “said UCI coach Tamara Inoue.

UCI (21-9 in total, 15-5 Big West) is now going to Henderson, Nevada, for the Big West team tournament, which begins on Wednesday.

The Antierres had already locked a double bye in the semi-finals on Friday with a 55-53 victory of the last second on the visit of the UC Davis on Thursday evening and will be classified n ° 2 behind Hawaii.

UCI won the conference tournament for the first time since 1995 last season, defeating UC Davis behind 21 points from Lee, which was appointed the most useful player in the tournament.

After the Antierres fell in Gonzaga, the fourth seeded, in the first round of the NCAA tournament and Lee became the first UCI player in the history of the program to win the Big West player of the year, the native of Surrey, in Columbia-British, was invited to go from the leader to the leader this season after the diploma of Diaba Konate.

It was a new role in Lee’s team, but not unknown.

“I have always been a distribution player and I have played the leader of the leader of my whole life,” said Lee. “My first look is to put my teammates. … As long as I make a good decision and it leads to a score, that’s all that matters to me. »»

The change of position, however, had an impact on Lee’s figures.

His score, shooting and even flight percentages have decreased this season, but his average aid went from 1.9 to 3.0 per match in the match on Saturday, which was equal to the conference.

“My decision -making was a bit of an adjustment at the start, because I used to make someone else’s decisions,” said Lee.

The passage to the leader and the addition of several players of competence offensively created less the need for Lee to score.

Hunter Hernandez and Olivia Williams returned after the two failures last season with knee injuries suffered during the 2022-23 season, and UCI also added the 6-foot 3-inch Summah Hansonstral attacker from Australia, who became the third scorer of the team.

With the new offensive options, Lee’s average score went from a 13.9 ppg summit last season to 10.4 before the regular season final on Saturday, which was still second in the team behind Hernandez (13.3).

Lee produced seven 20 points games last season, but only had this season and it came on November 27. She did not score more than 16 points in conference matches.

“She had to take the leader’s position with Diaba who left, so it limits her a little more,” said Inoue. “But, I think that with Hunter who enters and all our transfers, it was really useful for her and she just wants to win, so she will do everything you need.”

Although the Antierres had second place and the double was locked up when entering the match on Saturday, the UCSB had a lot of motivation to win.

If the Gauchos could beat the UCI a second time this season, they would have locked fourth place in the conference and would have obtained a bye in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

The UCSB (18-12, 12-8) dragged so far as to abandon the last seven points of the first half to fall late on 24-17. The Antierres then pulled 7 for 9 from the 3-point range in the third quarter to extend the advance at 51-37 and they never looked back.

Ten anticiers have scored and six of them made at least a 3 points at 3 points.

“We lost for them the last time we played them and it was our first defeat against Santa Barbara for four years that I have been here,” said Lee. “And so this kind turned on a fire under our butts. Having the opportunity to play them, not only in our last match, but my senior evening, we are not going out for a defeat. »»