Box Score SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – JaQouri McLaughlin scored 20 points, becoming the 31st UC Santa Barbara player to eclipse the 1,000-point mark, and Amadou Sow added 18 as the first-place Gauchos built a big lead before holding on to tie the school record for consecutive wins, 71-66 over visiting Cal State Bakersfield on Friday night.
The 11-game winning streak equals the streak that the program put together to open the 1988-89 season. The victory was also the 14th straight at the Thunderdome, one off the school mark set during the 1987-88 and 1988-89 seasons.
McLaughlin became the second UCSB player in as many games to pass the 1,000-point mark, joining Sow. He needed six entering the game and he finished the game with 1,014. He also joined Carrick DeHart and Conner Henry to become just the third player in school history with 1,000 or more points and 300 or more assists.
UCSB (15-3 overall, 9-2 Big West) led the game by as many as 19 points just over four minutes into the second half, before the Roadrunners (14-8, 8-5) got back into the game with a frenzied late rally.
The Gauchos still led by 13 at 67-54 when Robinson Idehen made a pair of free throws with 3:45 remaining in the game, but that's when Bakersfield began its rally.
Grehlon Easter started things by snaking into the lane for a layup and a foul. He made the free throw to carve the Santa Barbara lead to 67-57 at the 3:33 mark. After UCSB was unable to score on consecutive possessions, Easter struck again with a slashing layup and it was 67-59.
On the other end, Devearl Ramsey missed a three-point attempt and the ball went out of bounds to the Roadrunners. A layup by Shaun Williams with 1:15 remaining made it a 67-61 game. Ajare Sanni missed a three and Bakersfield responded with a strong inside power basket by Ronne Readus, making the score 67-63 with 31 seconds to play.
The visitors run ended when Ramsey was intentionally fouled and hit both free throws to make the score 69-63 with 21 seconds on the clock. Bakersfield responded again with a three-pointer from Easter with 13 ticks on the clock, but McLaughlin hit two free throws after he was intentionally fouled with 00:07 on the clock for the final score of 71-66.
With UCSB leading 12-6, Sanni made a long three-pointer from the right side. After the shot fell through, Sanni and Bakersfield's Justin McCall got tangled up and McCall was whistled for a technical foul. McLaughlin made both technical free throws to make the score 17-6 with 15:18 left in the first half.
The five-point play by the Gauchos seemed to spark the Roadrunners as they quickly reeled off a 6-0 run with all six points coming from Readus over the span of just 1:18. The surge cut the lead to 17-12 with 14:00 left in the half.
The advantage was down to five, 21-16, when McCall made a jumper just inside the free throw line at the 11:18 mark, but a 9-0 run, capped by a short jumper from Sow, pushed Santa Barbara's lead to 30-16, the biggest of the half. Bakersfield pulled within 32-26 with 2:49 left, but the Gauchos ended the half by scoring the last four points to take a 36-26 lead at the break.
In addition to scoring a game-high 20 points, McLaughlin had a game-high eight assists and tied for a team-high six rebounds. He was 5-of-9 from the field overall, but also hit 4-of-5 from three-point range. Sow, who made 7-of-10 shots, added six rebounds. Ramsey scored just five points, but also added six assists and five boards.
The Gauchos made 14-of-15 free throws, 93.3%, including all 10 of their attempts in the second half. They shot 44.4% overall from the field and made 9-of-21 three-point attempts, 42.9%. They also won the rebound battle, 31-29.
The Roadrunners shot 55.2% in the second half to finish the game at 50.0%, but they attempted just four total free throws, making a pair. They did hit 8-of-17 three-point attempts, including 6-of-10 in the second half.
UCSB and Bakersfield will play the sec and game of their two-game Big West Conference series on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in the Thunderdome. That game will be on ESPN3 with audio coverage at UCSBgauchos.com.
