Overview:
UCSB, off to the best 20-game start in school history, holds a one-game lead in Big West Conference race
HONOLULU — Coach Joe Pasternack swears that Ajay Mitchell makes game-winning shots with his eyes closed.
Mitchell’s running bank shot in the final seconds of UC Santa Barbara’s dramatic, 65-64 basketball victory at Hawai’i is actually part of a daily routine.
“I work on that shot every day,” he said after his basket with 1.9 seconds remaining silenced a rambunctious crowd of 5,178 at the SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Thursday.
“Especially at the end of games, I’m ready to have the ball,” Mitchell continued. “If I’m open, I take the shot. If I’m not, hit the open man.
“It was a great way to finish a game.”
The victory solidified UCSB’s grip on first place in the Big West Conference with an 8-1 record. The Gauchos, 17-3 overall, are off to the best 20-game start in school history.
Mitchell finished with a game-high 24 points on 8-of-17 shooting. He also made 7-of-8 free throws, grabbed five rebounds and handed out a team-high three assists.
“And he gets pounded every game,” Pasternack said. “He gets fouled almost every possession.”
The game-winning play came after Josh Pierre-Louis lobbed an inbound pass from under the Gaucho basket to Mitchell at the top of the key with 5.9 seconds left.
The sophomore point guard hesitated before driving past Hawai’i’s JoVon McClanahan and throwing a leaning bank shot just over the reach of 6-foot-9 Bernardo da Silva, the Big West’s leading shot blocker.
The ball hit high on the backboard before bounding into the basket.
“That was a huge, huge shot by him,” Pasternack said. “It’s amazing — it looked like his eyes were closed, and he threw it up there and it went in.
“I’m excited to watch it on film and see what it looks like.”
The Gauchos hold a one-game lead over UC Riverside (7-2, 14-7) in the conference race. They also lead UC Irvine (6-2, 13-7) by one-and-a-half games, and both Hawai’i (6-3, 15-6) and UC Davis (6-3, 13-8) by two games.
They’ve won 13 of their last 14 contests and are 5-0 in Big West road games.
“We’ve had great, great poise,” Pasternack said.
The Gauchos out-shot the Warriors 48.1% to 35.9% and out-rebounded them 35-31, with Pierre-Louis, Miles Norris, and freshman Koat Keat Tong getting seven rebounds apiece.
They led by as many as 13 points in the first half. The Warriors, however, fed off their crowd to storm into the lead with 3:41 still left in the game.
“In Hawai’i, it’s always a special game,” Mitchell said. “The crowd is crazy. It’s always a great atmosphere playing here.”
UCSB rallied from an early, 6-2 deficit by scoring 14 unanswered points. Calvin Wishart and Cole Anderson came off the bench to hit a three-pointer apiece during the run.
Beon Riley’s three-point play ended a nearly six-minute scoreless drought for Hawai’i. Ajare Sanni answered him just 28 seconds later with a driving layup to put the Gauchos ahead 18-9.
Andre Kelly scored back-to-back baskets — a dunk and a floater — on driving passes by Pierre-Louis and Mitchell. Mitchell’s two free throws and scoring runner on consecutive possessions gave the Gauchos their biggest lead of the first half, 31-18, with 4:50 on the clock.
An 11-4 discrepancy in fouls, however, kept the Warriors in the game. They made 11-for-13 free throws during the first half to UCSB’s 3-for-4.
Mitchell hit a three with 1:05 left in the period, but Hawai’i’s Justus Jackson beat the buzzer with one of his own to whittle the Gauchos’ lead to 36-27 by halftime. It was an omen of things to come.
UCSB out-shot the Warriors in the first half, 55.6% 24.1%, and out-rebounded them 20-13. But it took Hawai’i less than three minutes to erase nearly all of its halftime deficit.
Kamaka Hepa, who had missed all four of his three-point attempts in the first 20 minutes, made his first two of the second half during an 8-0 run which brought the Warriors to within 36-35.
“It’s a 10-round fight,” Pasternack said. “We call it 10 four-minute wars, and I thought we did a really nice job in the first half.
“The first four minutes of the second half, they threw a really big punch at us. We had to call a timeout and settle everybody down. But it’s 10 four-minute wars, and I thought our guys responded real nicely.”
A runner by McClanahan reduced UCSB’s lead to one point again. He argued angrily that he’d been fouled on the play, however, and drew a technical foul. The Gauchos cashed in the call with a four-point possession — Mitchell’s two technical foul shots and an alley-oop, reverse layup by Norris off Wishart’s lob.
UCSB pulled ahead by eight points, 59-51, when Anderson made his second three-pointer of the second half with eight minutes to go. The sophomore guard reached double-figure scoring for the fifth-straight game with 13 points. He made 5-of-7 shots which included 3-of-4 from three.
“Cole Anderson was unbelievable off the bench, and so was K.K. (Koat Keat Tong) with his seven rebounds in just 17 minutes,” Pasternack said. “Cole hit some unbelievable shots.
“He’s hit huge, huge shots the last five games. He’s on a roll.”
No shot was bigger than Anderson’s two-point jumper that halted a 9-0 run by the Warriors with 3:17 remaining. It came just 14 seconds after a basket by Samuta Avea — Hawai’i’s leading scorer with 13 points —put his team ahead 62-61.
Da Silva capped his 12-point, nine-rebound night by converting an up-and-under move to put the Warriors back on top, 64-63, with 2:41 left.
Both teams came up empty in their next three possessions. Kelly harassed Noel Coleman into leaving his running jump shot short with just over 20 seconds remaining, giving UCSB the chance at its game-winner.
“We kept our poise when they went on their runs,” Pasternack said. “We knew they were going to go on a run — and they threw a punch, and their crowd was raucous — and our guys just stayed with it.
“We have a word, ‘attitude,’ which is about how you respond when something bad happens. And I thought our guys had good attitudes tonight.”
The Gauchos will get to enjoy first place for a week before returning to action at home next Thursday at 7 p.m. with a game against arch-rival Cal Poly.
“We need to have a packed house, ready to go,” Pasternack said.