SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — UC Santa Barbara Men's Basketball (1-0) opened up the 2026-27 season by defeating Division II San Francisco State 85-55 on Monday night at The Thunderdome. A 12-0 run spanning the final 10 seconds of the first half and opening 2:22 of the second moved the score from 39-26 to 51-26 and the Gauchos never looked back. UC Santa Barbara finished with 55 bench points, 40 points in the paint, 18 assists and 10 steals while holding SFSU to 55 points.
FROM HEAD COACH JOE PASTERNACK
"I was really, really happy to see the incredible energy from
Declan Duru Jr. tonight," said Pasternack. "His improvement is unbelievable; he competed so hard tonight. We have a deep team, and it is a highly competitive environment every single day."
HOW IT HAPPENED
UC Santa Barbara turned an early 6-2 deficit into control of the first half with a 10-0 stretch, getting baskets from
Koat Keat Tong,
Miro Little,
Viljami Vartiainen and
RJ Smith to move in front 12-6. The Gators later closed to 19-17, but UC Santa Barbara responded with an
Antonio Chol free throw, an
Eric Dibami layup and a
Michael Simcoe basket to push the margin back to 24-17. UC Santa Barbara protected the ball with three turnovers while SFSU committed 10. The Gauchos added 20 points in the paint and 21 bench points in the opening half. Chol hit a 3-pointer with 1:47 left and finished the half with a dunk with 10 seconds remaining as UC Santa Barbara went into halftime ahead 41-26.
In the second half, UC Santa Barbara stretched its halftime control into an 85-55 finish, outscoring the Gators 44-29 while holding a 26-18 rebounding edge and blocking six shots. Early in the half, Dibami started the scoring with a layup and a fast-break dunk off assists from
Marvin McGhee IV and
Aidan Mahaney. Little and Chol each added 3-pointers as UC Santa Barbara pushed the score to 56-29 with 15:09 left. SFSU forced a series of turnovers and cut the score to 58-43, but UC Santa Barbara answered with McGhee's two 3-pointers and an
RJ Smith three to extend the lead to 67-44 at the 7:15 mark. The Gauchos side added another 8-0 burst from 6:08 to 4:24, getting baskets from
Jordan Charles, Vartiainen and
Luke Zuffelato, along with defensive stops that included blocks by Chol and
Marco John Wuol. Charles scored six points in the final 6:08 and came up with the last steal as UC Santa Barbara closed out the win.
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will now prepare to take on Oakland University as the Golden Grizzlies visit The Thunderdome on Saturday, November 7. The Gauchos and Grizzlies will tip off at 1 p.m., with the game streamed on ESPN+, with live stats available.
