Box Score SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – UC Santa Barbara head coach Joe Pasternack always stresses defense and rebounding as the keys to victory, and on Thursday night the Gauchos needed every rebound and every defensive stop to hold off a late rally by Cal State Fullerton and post their 20th win of the season, 55-53.
"Defense and rebounding are especially important to winning games in March," Pasternack said. "We did those two things tonight and they helped us to overcome some other not-so-good things for the win."
UCSB (20-10 overall, 9-6 Big West) led the Titans (10-20, 5-10) 51-43 on a driving layup by Devearl Ramsey with 1:45 left in the game.
After a timeout, Wayne Arnold missed a three-pointer for Fullerton and the ball went out of bounds to the Gauchos and that's when things started to get scary as the visitors went into a tough full court press.
A quick steal and basket by Austen Awosika made it 51-45 with 1:33 to play. He was fouled on the layup by Matt Freeman but missed the free throw. Following another Santa Barbara turnover, Brandon Kamga made a short jumper in the paint, drawing the foul as well. Kamga made the free throw and the lead was down to 51-48.
Another turnover led to another attempted layup by Kamga, but this one was blocked by Amadou Sow. JaQuori McLaughlin came up with the rebound and was fouled, but the 80-percent free throw shooter missed both free throws. Jackson Rowe rebounded the second miss and got the ball to Arnold who made a jumper from just outside the key, cutting the lead to 51-50 with just over a minute to play.
A missed jumper in the paint by Sow was rebounded by Rowe. On the other end, Awosika missed a short jumper and Matt Freeman came up with the ball. He was fouled with 11 seconds to play and made both free throws to stretch the lead to 53-50.
The Titans got the ball inbounds to Awosika who streaked up the right sideline. He was intentionally fouled by Ramsey just over midcourt. Awosika made the first free throw to make the score 53-51, but missed the second. Brando Cyrus rebounded and was immediately fouled, making both free throws with six second on the clock, pushing the advantage to 55-51. Kamga made an 18-foot jump shot as the buzzer sounded to end the game at 55-53.
Neither team shot the ball well. The Gauchos finished at just 31.9% overall and were 5-of-16 from three-point range, 31.3%. They did make 20-of-25 free throws, 80.0%. Fullerton was slightly better overall at 36.2%, but made just 5-of-24 from three-point range, 20.8%, and hit a mere 6-of-13 free throws, 46.2%.
UCSB used a 42-32 rebounding advantage to take the sting out of committing 17 turnovers. The Titans had 13 turnovers.
Sow paced the Gauchos with 18 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Ramsey had 13 points while Freeman added his first double-double with 10 points and a career-high 14 boards. McLaughlin tied his career-high with eight assists while having just one turnover.
"Our two starting ball handlers combined for 10 assists and just one turnover," Pasternack said. "That's good, but our big guys (Sow and Freeman) had 10 and that's just too many, especially this time of year."
Kamga finished with 17 points, while Awosika had 14 and Rowe 13 for Fullerton.
The win is the seventh in the last nine games for UCSB and the program has now produced 20 or more wins in three straight seasons for just the second time in school history and the first since 1987-90.
The Gauchos will close out the regular season on Saturday when they host Cal Poly in a 7:00 p.m. game at the Thunderdome. Prior to the game against the Mustangs the basketball program will salute its three senior players: Max Heidegger, Matt Freeman and Andrew Pickles.
