SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - UC Santa Barbara went scoreless over the final 10:50 as visiting UC Irvine overcame a 52-44 deficit en route to a 61-52 win on Saturday afternoon.

The Gauchos (7-9 overall, 1-2 in Big West) took the 52-44 lead over the Anteaters (15-5, 4-0) when Gabe Vincent made his fourth three-point basket of the game with 10:50 to play, but that was his team's final basket as UCSB missed its last 12 field goal attempts and three free throw attempts.

"We haven't been finishing games strong and tonight it really cost us," said head coach Bob Williams. "I thought we got really tired tonight. They're a very physical team and our rotation just doesn't go that deep, but either way, I thought we played tired at the end."

Irvine jumped out to an 8-0 lead to open the game, but the Gauchos got hot from three-point territory and scored 15 straight points on the strength of five three-pointers, taking a 15-8 lead. In fact, when Eric Childress made his fourth three of the game with 5:46 to play in the half, UCSB led 24-19 and had made eight baskets, all of them came from outside the arc.

"After a slow start we got it going from the perimeter," Williams said. "In fact, I wish we had shot more threes down the stretch. Irvine is a very difficult team to get to the rim against and we knew we were going to have to make shots to win."

Santa Barbara led 30-28 at half and remained in the lead until going ice cold down the stretch. At one point after the 10:50 mark, the Gauchos had four opportunities to expand the eight-point lead but they missed three shots and turned the ball over once. Irvine's Mamadou Ndiaye began the 17-0 game-ending run with a pair of free throws at the 8:03 mark.

Ndiaye, who finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds, attempted 16 free throws and made nine. As a team, UCI hit 19-of-32 as compared to UCSB's 1-for-5 effort.

"That was a big difference in the game," Williams said. "But the type of team they are, you expect them to take a lot of free throws and we decided that we would rather have Mamadou at the line than dunking."

The other major difference down the stretch was rebounding. At halftime, the Gauchos had a 24-17 advantage on the boards, but the Anteaters outrebounded them 28-14 in the second half.

Vincent paced UCSB with 14 points, while Michael Bryson had 13 and Childress added a career-high 14. Mike Best had 20 points, 16 of which came in the first half, and Luke Nelson added 10.

The Gauchos return to action on Wednesday, Jan. 20 when they host Long Beach State at 7:00 p.m. in the Thunderdome.