SANTA BARBARA, Calif.– The 100^th Gaucho win for head coach Joe Pasternack came at the perfect time for the UC Santa Barbara men's basketball team which topped Long Beach State 84-71 Saturday night in front of a packed house a The Thunderdome. The Beach, who currently sit atop the Big West Conference, saw their 11-game win streak ended by the hands of the Gaucho back court as all three guards had tremendous performances. 

ON THE STAT SHEET

• Four different Gauchos scored 17+ points in what was another efficient offense showing for UCSB
• Freshman Ajay Mitchell led all players with 20 points, his third 20-point effort in the last four games, going 9-for-15 from the field and narrowly missing a double-double with nine assists and three steals
• Junior Josh Pierre-Louis arguably was the player of the game with a 17 point-11 assist double-double that was just two rebounds away from what would've been UCSB's first triple-double since Brian Shaw. "Skipp" went 9-for-12 from the free-throw line and added three steals.
• Junior Calvin Wishart had early foul trouble and sat much of the first half but made up for it with an electric second half. He ended with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting with three triples in big moments for the Gauchos. He added four rebounds as well.
• The final double-digit point scorer was senior Amadou Sow who went 9-for-12 from the field for 18 points and just missed the double-double as well tallying nine rebounds.
• UCSB topped LBSU in every stat category with the exception of three-point shooting, including winning the rebounding battle 38-29 and outscoring The Beach in the paint 48-26

 HOW IT HAPPENED

First Half (39-38 UCSB)

• Sow was huge in the first half for the Gauchos scoring 16 on an incredible 8-for-11 clip, giving his team an early lead that it would hang on to for most of the half. He would score eight-straight in the final five minutes to keep UCSB in it.
• The Gauchos found success earlier in the half as well with senior Miles Norris knocking down an early three and graduate student Robinson Idehen igniting the offense with a put-back slam.
• UCSB led by as much as 11 in the first period, but a lone wolf of the LBSU offense in Colin Slater single-handedly kept his team alive scoring 18 in the first half thanks to four triples. He accounted for nearly half of The Beach's points.
• Slater and The Beach closed out the half strong to only trail the Gauchos by one at 39-38.

Second Half (84-71 UCSB)

• The second half saw Mitchell, Wishart, and Pierre-Louis erupt combing for 40 of the 45 points scored and going 12-for-18 with all seven assists and 10 of the 21 boards secured.
• UCSB outshot LBSU 60.9%-34.3% in the second half and won the rebound battle 21-15
•  The Gaucho lead grew to as much as much as 16 as UCSB preserved the win and outscored the visiting Beach 45-33 in the period.

UP NEXT
UCSB will now finish out the road portion of its regular season schedule heading to UC Davis on Thursday, before making the long journey to UC Riverside Saturday evening.