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LOS ANGELES - The LMU women's basketball team pulled away down the stretch as it outlasted UC Santa Barbara, 57-55, Friday night at Gersten Pavilion.

After eight lead changes in the fourth quarter, LMU closed out the game from the free throw line for its fourth win in five games.

"It wasn't pretty," said head coach Charity Elliott. "But we'll take another win. It really was solid execution down the stretch. We hit some tough free throws when we needed to. That's a tough, scrappy team and we just kept fighting and clawing, we missed so many easy baskets and we still found a way to win."

Jackie Johnson finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. Leslie Lopez-Wood matched Johnson with 13 points, while Cheyanne Wallace followed with 12 points to go with eight rebounds.

LMU (4-4) stifled UC Santa Barbara's (2-5) attack to open the game as it forced five turnovers and scored 14 of its 19 first-quarter points off Gaucho miscues. Johnson and Bianca Velasco netted six points apiece in the opening quarter, kickstarting the offense to take the early lead at 19-13.

The Gauchos opened the second quarter with a 10-3 run to take the lead at 24-23. However, the Lions answered immediately as NK Ilang netted a jumper in the lane and Makenzie Cast connected from deep before the Gauchos tied it up at 27-27. Johnson and Lopez-Wood swished back-to-back baskets to push the lead to four with a minute left in the half, but UC Santa Barbara hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to slice LMU's command to 31-30 heading into the intermission.

Wallace and Lopez-Wood carried LMU in the third quarter, netting six and five points, respectively, to push its hold on the scoreboard to 44-41. The fourth quarter featured eight lead changes as LMU and UC Santa Barbara exchanged baskets down the stretch as neither team was able to lead by more than two points.

The Gauchos took a two-point lead with just over a minute to go before a Jonson free throw cut it to one with 32 seconds left. Wallace hauled down an offensive rebound and was fouled on the putback attempt, where she converted on the pair from the charity stripe to put the score in favor of LMU, 56-55, with 19 ticks to go.

On the Gauchos ensuing possession, Wallace grabbed a misfired triple and converted on another free throw to give the Lions as two-point cushion. On the final possession of the game, UC Santa Barbara fired off a last-second 3-pointer, but the shot was off the mark as the Lions held on for the win.

LMU will travel to Cal State Fullerton on Sunday, Dec. 4 for its final non-conference road bout at 2 p.m.