Overview:
Playmakers Aidan Mahaney (17 points, six assists) and Miro Little (11 points, eight rebounds, six assists) guide UCSB to victory
Colin Smith finally feels 100%, which is the percentage he nearly shot at UC Santa Barbara’s Thunderdome on Saturday.
The 6-foot-8 junior forward made 8-of-11 shots, 4-of-6 three-pointers, and all four of his free throws to score a career-high 24 points in the Gauchos’ 85-74 men’s basketball victory over San José State.
“Coach P preached that right after the (Big West Conference) tournament last year … He was like, ‘We’ve got to focus on getting your body right,” Smith said in reference to coach Joe Pasternack. “That was my focus this spring and summer, and it’s really paid off.
“And I’m feeling 100% right now.”
Smith, who transferred to UCSB last season after having torn an Achilles tendon at Vanderbilt, has dealt with sprained ankles and a concussion ever since becoming a Gaucho. He missed 14 games altogether last season.
The 6-foot-8 junior is averaging a team-high 18.5 points per game on 61.1% shooting after two games of this season.
Pasternack, who admitted to being a coach who is “always going to have issues,” said he’d “like to get him in the post more, to finish in the post.”
He also wants him to increase his rebound average of 4.0 per game.
“But Colin really shot the ball well today,” he said. “Colin took really great shots.”
The Gauchos (2-0) needed a good shooting day all the way around, making 57.7% as a team overall and 50% from three (11-for-22), to hold off a plucky San José team.
Colby Garland, a crafty, 6-foot junior transfer from Longwood University, rallied the Spartans from a halftime deficit of 45-28 by scoring 20 of his game-high 30 points in the final 20 minutes.
“We failed miserably in the second half, except for holding on at the end,” Pasternack said. “This team has a lot of talent, and we’re just learning each other.
“This was a good test. San José State went into Utah and gave them a great match … Should’ve beaten Utah.
“This was a great, great challenge for us.”
UCSB went on a 25-12 run in the final 8 ½ minutes of the first half. Mahaney made a pair of threes in the last minute to send the Gauchos into the locker room with their 45-28 lead.
Mahaney made 5-of-9 threes in the game and finished with 17 points.
“We were in a good spot, and then in the last eight minutes of the first half, I think we made every mistake we could,” San José coach Tim Miles said. “Now, credit the kids — we battled back in the second half and managed the game and cut it all the way down to a couple of possessions.
“But when you dig yourself that big of a hole in the first half … And Santa Barbara is an excellent team. They shoot the lights out.”
The Spartans, who hung close at Utah in their season opener before losing 84-75, trailed by as many as19 points early in the second half before rallying to within five, 70-65, with 5:17 remaining.
But Smith gave UCSB some breathing room just 17 seconds later when he converted Mahaney’s pass with a three from the right corner.
“Time and score are very important,” he said, “but it’s just another shot you’ve taken a thousand times in your life, so I didn’t really feel that type of pressure.
“It was an open shot, so I feel comfortable hitting that.”
He finished off the Spartans by taking Miro Little’s pass and hitting another three from the opposite side with 1:41 to go.
Mahaney and Little, two of this year’s four recruits from the NCAA Transfer Portal, picked San José apart with their playmaking and scoring.
Mahaney, a senior from UConn, had six assists with just two turnovers to go with his 17 points.
Little had six assists with no turnovers.
“I’m really proud of him,” Pasternack said. “You’re judged as a point guard by, ‘Did your team win? … What was your assist to turnovers?’”
Little scored six of his 11 points in the final 3:11. He also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds from his point-guard position.
“The main focus for me is to just do anything it takes to win,” Little said. “That’s what coach P preached to me a lot during the summer, and while I was playing with the national team (for Finland at the EuroBasket Championships).
“Having a good amount of assists and zero turnovers, that’s the best place you can be at.
“Going to rebound, that’s a big focus also … That’s what helps our team. We get to run after that and get easy buckets.”
The Gauchos made their first five threes — two by Smith — to surge to an early, double-digit lead.
Smith scored seven straight points, the last off Little’s pass from the top of the key, to trigger UCSB’s late surge in the first half.
Freshman C.J. Shaw, who scored 20 points in his college debut on Tuesday, got seven of his nine points by Saturday’s halftime.
UCSB outshot the Spartans in the first half 62.1% to 37% overall and 57.1% to 27.3% from three, making 8-of-14 long shots.
But Garland continually waded inside the Gauchos’ man-to-man defense to score mostly mid-range jump shots. He made 11-of-13 attempts and 8-of-9 free throws to get his career-high 30 points.
“If you give up that kind of points to somebody, you’re not beating many people,” Pasternack said.
Garland scored 12 points in just 3½ minutes to reduce UCSB’s margin to just two possessions in the last five minutes.
“Those were tough shots … There were no gimme shots,” Little said. “Personally, starting with myself, I’ve got to be better on the defensive side and be more disciplined, and focus on that.
“But props to him, he played well and had a big game, made some shots — some tough shots — and kept them in the game.”
But center Hosana Kitenge, a transfer from the University of Louisiana, helped the Gauchos pull out the victory by scoring all 10 of his points in the final 8½ minutes.
He made his last three shots — one off a nearly full-court, fast-break pass from Little — after missing his first five. Kitenge also went 4-for-5 from the free-throw line.
“Our one word is ‘attitude’ … ‘How do you respond when something bad happens?’” Pasternack said. “Hosana had a terrible first half. Three turnovers, zero points. He couldn’t make a layup.
“I’m just so happy how he stuck with it and how he responded.”
The Gauchos will return to action on Tuesday with a 7 p.m. game at Sacramento State.