LONG BEACH, Calif. - UC Santa Barbara battled back from a 13-point deficit to take a brief 1-point lead late in the second half, but in the end Long Beach State proved too much, winning 81-76. 

The Gauchos (3-13, 1-3) trailed 47-34 as the final seconds came off the clock to end the first half, but reserve guard Tide Osifeso's three-point basket to end the half cut the deficit to 47-37 and seemed to turn the momentum entering the second half. 

Long Beach (7-14, 2-3) still maintained a 11-point lead when Justin Bibbins made a three-pointer with 16:04 left in the game, but three-pointers by Gabe Vincent and Osifeso sandwiched a free throw by Alex Hart and gave UCSB a 7-0 run that made it 57-53 with 12:30 to play. 

"When we got it down to four I thought we had them on their heels a little bit," said head coach Bob Williams. "It was then I knew it was going to be a close game."

And a close game it was. Long Beach was able to push the lead back to eight on a short jumper by Temidayo Yussuf at the 9:43 mark, but the Gauchos used a 13-5 run, tying the score on a free throw by Eric Childress with 5:35 remaining. 

"We've figured out how to be more guard-oriented because our bigs are out," Childress said. "We've found something that works for us. We have a lot of good guards who can get into the paint and create for others, and create for ourselves and we're kind of riding that right now."

Childress rode it to a career-high 17 points.

After Yussuf made a pair of free throws to give the 49ers a 70-68 lead, Vincent fouled out, leaving the game with 4:58 to play. 

Roschon Prince missed the front end of a 1-plus-1 and Childress responded with an outstanding driving lay-up on the baseline to tie the score at 70. On the other end Bibbins made 1-of-2 free throws to break the tie, but then the 5-foot-8 Osifeso took a pass from Alex Hart in the low post and made a reverse lay-up to give UCSB its only lead of the second half, 72-71. Osifeso finished with a career-high of his own with eight points.

Evan Payne's three-pointer from the left side made it 74-72 Long Beach, but a rebound and follow by Hart tied the score for the last time at 74-74 with 2:29 to play.

"I know that we're playing small right now, so I understanding the importance of going after every rebound," said Hart, who finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, his second straight double-double.

A pair of free throws by Prince, a defensive stop and another short jumper by Yussuf gave the 49ers a 78-74 lead with 1:20 to play. The lead never dropped below three thre rest of the way.

"Once again, our effort was outstanding," Williams said. "I didn't like the way we ended the first half, but we really played hard in the second half and that paid off with some baskets and stops. We've just got to keep playing hard and, hopefully, we'll start making some shots."

In addition to his career-high 17 points, Childress finished with five steals and five rebounds. Hart was 6-of-8 from the field en route to his 14 points. Vincent finished with 16 points, 11 coming in the second half. UCSB won the rebounding battle, 39-38 and had five players with at least five.

Yussuf led Long Beach with a career-high 25 points. Payne added 15 and Prince added a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

The Gauchos will remain on the road for one more game as they travel to UC Riverside on Saturday afternoon for a 4:00 p.m. game against the Highlanders. The game will be carried on ESPN3.