LOS ANGELES – The UC Santa Barbara Men's Basketball team (7-3, 0-2 Big West) will hit the road for two games this week. The Gauchos will start the trip on a short bus ride down to Los Angeles as they take on Loyola Marymount (LMU) on Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. The Gauchos will then travel to Missouri to take on Missouri State on Sunday, Dec. 22.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Blue and Gold scored 56 points on 61 percent shooting, outscoring the visiting Phoenix by 21 in the second half during Saturday's contest. The dominant second half performance propelled the Gauchos to a come-from-behind win. Kenny Pohto recorded his third double-double of the season, posting 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Deuce Turner led the team in scoring with 23 points, 18 of which came in the second half.
 
SCOUTING THE LIONS
LMU comes into Wednesday night's contest winning four of their last five games with their lone loss coming on the road at Colorado State. The Lions currently post a 5-4 overall record and rank 213 in the latest NET Rankings.
 
Offensively, the Lions are led by senior guard Will Johnston. The Australian is averaging 15.7 points and 3.3 assists per game, both leading the team. He is also shooing just over 41 percent from the floor, over 37 percent from three and nearly 90 percent from the charity stripe. Jevon Porter, Caleb Stone-Carrawell and Alex Merkviladze are all averaging in double figures. The four make up nearly 75% of all of the Lions scoring through their first nine games of the season. Additionally, LMU is averaging 71.3 points per contest as a team, but if you take away their game against NAIA opponent Life Pacific, their points per game drops to 67.8 per contest ranking them 315th in Division I scoring.
 
The Gauchos will need to put a body on Jevon Porter, as the Missouri native leads the team in rebounding, grabbing 8.5 per game. He is very active on the offensive glass, recording over two offensive boards per game. The Gauchos could attack him while on offense, as he has committed 26 personal fouls and has fouled out twice this season already.
 
SCOUTING THE BEARS
Before the Gauchos roll into town, Missouri State will host Division II opponent Lincoln University on Wednesday night. As it stands right now the Bears are 5-5 overall and are 0-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference dropping their lone conference match to Indiana State. In the latest NET Rankings, the Bears come in at 200.
 
Dez White leads the Bears offensively, averaging 18.6 points per game which ranks 53rd nationally. He also is lighting it up from deep, shooting 39.5 percent from beyond the arc. He ranks in the top 100 nationally in three-point field goal percentage and three pointers per game. Also doing damage on the offensive end for the Gears is Vincent Brady II and Zaxton King who are averaging 14.1 points and 10.3 points respectively.
 
The Bears share the ball well with four players averaging two or more assists per game. White, Brady II and King have combined for 69 total assists. Coming off the bench and contributing 20 more is Mozae Downing-Rivers. The four make up 71.2 percent of all assists for Missouri State this season. Additionally, MSU is not a great free-throw-shooting team as they are shooting it at just over a 68 percent clip from the charity stripe. Just one player (Dez White) has a free throw percentage above 78 percent.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
UC Santa Barbara and LMU will tip off at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 18 in Los Angeles. Following that contest, the Gauchos and Bears will tip off at 11 a.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, Dec. 22 in Springfield, Missouri. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+ with live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com/MBBLiveStats.