SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara Men's Basketball team (19-12, 11-9) wrapped up the regular season Saturday night against UC Irvine. The Gauchos led by as much as 16 at one point, but were unable to hand on to the lead as they fell to the Anteaters, 97-88.

FROM HEAD COACH JOE PASTERNACK
"This has been a parallel for the entire season," said Pasternack. "We played incredibly well in first half, I felt like we had a great fight to us. In the second half we couldn't get consecutive stops."

HOW IT HAPPENED
UC Santa Barbara opened the first half with a strong performance, highlighted by Stephan Swenson's early 3-pointer at, assisted by Kenny Pohto. Swenson continued to contribute significantly with a total of three assists and two steals, while Deuce Turner scored consecutively with a layup at and a jumper. The team maintained consistent scoring with contributions from Colin Smith and Jason Fontenet II, leading to a halftime score of 43-30, favoring UC Santa Barbara.

UC Santa Barbara's second half against the Anteaters saw a strong performance from Deuce Turner, who scored consistently, including a crucial 3-pointer to push the score to 62-50. Despite Turner's efforts, UCI's Justin Hohn and Jurian Dixon were instrumental in Anteaters comeback, with Hohn contributing a key 3-pointer. UC Santa Barbara's bench also made significant contributions, scoring 34 points in the half, but it was not enough to overcome the Anteaters' offensive momentum.

UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will be the No. 5 seed in The Big West Championships. They will play No. 8 Seed Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday, March 12 at 6 p.m. The game will be played in Henderson, Nevada at Lee's Family Forum.