HONOLULU, Hawaii – Amadou Sow and JaQuori McLaughlin scored 14 points apiece, and Josh Pierre-Louis chipped in 11, as visiting UC Santa Barbara won its ninth-straight game, a 59-50 defensive struggle over Hawai'i on Friday night. 

The nine-game winning streak is the longest for UCSB during Joe Pasternack's time as head coach. His 2017-18 team had an eight-game streak, all in Big West play. The last time the program won at least nine in a row was at the end of the 2015-16 season when it won its last eight regular season games and then a first-round game in the Big West Tournament. A loss in the tournament semifinals to Hawai'i ended that streak. In 1988-89, Santa Barbara opened the season with an 11-0 record, the longest streak in school history. 

The first-place Gauchos (13-3 overall, 7-2 Big West), struggled offensively against the Rainbow Warriors (7-6, 5-6), but they were able to tighten-up defensively when needed to pull off the win. 

In a very defensive first half, UCSB used a 12-0 run to turn a 12-10 deficit into a 22-12 lead. Pierre-Louis scored seven of the points, including a slam dunk, a gliding layup and a three-pointer at the 10:15 mark. Sow also had a layup and Robinson Idehen had a three-point play during the run. 

The Rainbow Warriors cut the gap to 25-20 on a layup by Justin Webster with 54 seconds to play, but McLaughlin's second basket, and second three-pointer, at 0:25, stretched the lead to 28-20 at the break.  

Hawai'i scored the first basket of the second half, a jumper by Cason Jardine, carving the lead to 28-2. But UCSB went on an 9-2 run, capped by a layup from Pierre-Louis, to pull out to a 37-24 lead, the biggest of the game. 

The Rainbow Warriors pulled within four points on two occasions, at 39-35 and again at 41-37, but could get no closer.

Leading 43-38 with 7:48 left in the game, McLaughlin scored on a layup and made a free throw, and then Destin Barnes drained a two-point jumper from the left corner, extending the lead back to 48-38 with 5:10 remaining. 

The lead never dropped below seven, 52-45, the rest of the way and was back to 59-50 as time ran out.

Sow made 6-of-9 shots from the field and Pierre-Louis was 5-for-9, the rest of the Gaucho team was 11-for-42. Overall, Santa Barbara hit just 22-of-50, 36.7%. The Gauchos also made just 3-for-16 three-point attempts, 18.8%, but they were also a solid 12-for-15 from the free throw line, 80.0%. Miles Norris finished with just two points, but also added team-highs of seven rebound and three blocked shots.

As a team, the Gauchos had a season-low seven turnovers. 

UH was led by James Jean-Marie with 10 points, while Justin Webster added eight. The Rainbow Warriors made just 18-of-54 field goal attempts, 33.3%, and 4-for-18 from three-point territory, 22.2% 

UCSB and Hawai'i will play the second game of their two-game series on Saturday evening at 9:00 p.m. (PST).