FRESNO, Calif. – The UC Santa Barbara Men's Basketball team (2-2) is back on the road tonight as they take on the Bulldogs of Fresno State. These two teams played each other last season at the Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz, where the Gauchos came out with the 61-54 win.
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos were on their home court in The Thunderdome the day before Thanksgiving as they took on a local opponent in the Westmont College Warriors. UC Santa Barbara gave fans something to be thankful for as they took down the Warriors 91-79.
Ajay Mitchell,
Yohan Traore and
Matija Belic all scored more than 15 points to help the Gauchos record this win.
BATTLING THE BULLDOGS
Fresno State has started their season with three wins against Fresno Pacific, Morgan State and New Mexico State before taking losses to Kent State and, most recently, No. 22 James Madison. This will just be the second game Fresno State has hosted in their gym during this early start of the season.
Senior Isaiah Hill is setting up the offense well as one of the team's guards. He is 18th in the NCAA when it comes to assists, averaging 6 in a game. He also spends a lot of time on the court for the Bulldogs as he is 22nd in the NCAA in minutes, aver aging 36:37 per game. Not only does he rank nationally in all of these categories, he leads the Bulldogs in points with 71 on the season. His best game of the season came against New Mexico State when he registered 21 points.
Following up close behind Hill is Donavan Yap Jr. He is second on the team in points with 61 while ranking 22nd in the NCAA in free throw percentage, shooting at 95 percent from the charity stripe.
Xavier DuSell is one of two players who has started all five games this season. The junior guard leads the team in steals with 10. This averages out to two steals per game, the most in the Mountain West. He also leads the conference in three-point field goal percentage, shooting at 43.8 percent from beyond the arc.
Enoch Boakye has been a big help for the Bulldogs on defense, grabbing a team-high 35 rebounds so far this season.
WHEREABOUTS
This game at the Save Mart Center in Fresno will begin at 6 p.m. tonight. For fans who can't make it to the game in person, they can watch the live stream through the Mountain West Network.
