LONG BEACH, Calif.– The UC Santa Barbara Men's Basketball team returned to the court for the first time in two weeks Thursday night, dropping a Big West matchup at Long Beach State 65-58. The Gauchos looked good early taking an eight-point lead into the break, but were outscored by 15 in the second half to drop their second straight game.

ON THE STAT SHEET

• Freshman guard Ajay Mitchell led the team with a career-high 15 points and has now set career-highs in scoring in last three-straight games
• Mitchell went 6-for-12 from the field in over 36 minutes on the floor
• Senior center Amadou Sow narrowly missed a double-double scoring nine and picking up a season-high 14 boards as the only rebounder in double figures
• UCSB outshot and outrebounded LBSU, but the host Beach had less turnovers and shot an impeccable 17-for-17 from the free throw line
• For the first time this season the Gauchos lost a game where they led at the half

NOTABLE

• Sow moved passed Chris Devine ('05-'09) on the all-time rebound list and now ranks sixth with 732 in his career
• Sow is now just four points away from having 1,400 in his career which would rank him 13^th on the all-time scoring list
• Senior guard Sekou Toure picked up his second straight start for the first time in his career – it is the third start of his career in 93 games
• Freshman forward Ariel Bland made his third career appearance 

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Half (34-26 UCSB)

• The Long Beach offense was quick to start, knocking down a pair of threes and scoring a pair of layups to get out to a 12-6 run before UCSB's defense stepped up to hold the host Beach scoreless for five straight minutes
• During that stretch the Gauchos mounted a 9-0 run capped off by an and-one jumper from Mitchell that put his team up 18-14
• With just under three minutes left to go in the half the two teams met at 24 apiece where the Gaucho offense found another surge, this time fueled by Sanni who scored five straight points and gave UCSB a 34-26 lead heading into halftime
• Mitchell and Sanni each saw seven points in the half and Sow led all players with six rebounds
• Despite being plagued by nine turnovers the Gauchos were highly efficient when they did get shots off shooting 57.1% from the field while holding the Beach to 29.6%

Second Half (39-24 Long Beach State)

• After a rough shooting performance in the first half the Beach made it a point to get the ball down low early in often in the second half where they were able to shoot 50.0% from the field and score 20 points in the paint compared to eight in the first period
• The Gaucho defense was strong enough to keep the Beach at bay for the first 10 minutes of the period, but the final 10 minutes of the game saw the host team mount a 10-0 run to take a late lead at 57-52
• UCSB regained the lead at 58-57 with just 3:45 to go thanks to a step back jumper from Mitchell, but the that would be the final time the Gauchos got ahead as they proceeded to allow LBSU to on a game-winning 8-0 stretch while missing their last seven straight shots

UP NEXT
UCSB will stay down south for its next matchup Saturday night at Cal State Fullerton. Tipoff is set for 6 PM on ESPN+.