Cole Anderson Joins Elite Company While Helping UCSB Beat Bakersfield

A Top-10 Moment for Cole Anderson helped UC Santa Barbara creep back into the midst of the Big West Conference men’s basketball race.

Anderson made all four of his three-point shots to crack the Gauchos’ career top-10 list and help them beat Cal State Bakersfield 78-66 on Thursday at the Thunderdome.

“I honestly didn’t know that,” the senior guard said when notified that he’d moved past Orlando Johnson in UCSB’s record books with 184 career threes. “People told me during the offseason (that he was close) but I didn’t really pay attention to it during the year.

“But that’s awesome. I don’t really care about it right now because we’re in middle of the season, but yeah, it’s cool.”

Anderson finished with 14 points while sophomore Jason Fontenet made 6-of-9 shots which included a trio of three-pointers to lead UCSB with 17 points.

The Gauchos’ two starting wing guards both snapped out of shooting slumps. Anderson had made just 2-of-11 shots in his last two games while Fontenet was 4-of-23 in his previous three.

“Cole and Jason are great shooters, that’s the least of my concerns,” UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said. “They’re so much more than that.

“Defensively, both these guys played so hard, competed really hard, and they’re great shooters.

“We have to be able to defend and rebound … I thought tonight, holding this team to 39% and winning the rebounding war, those guys did a great job.”

Fontenet, who averaged a team-high 15.8 points in UCSB’s first five games, saw his average drop to 11.6 before Thursday’s game.

“I just stay level-headed with the ups and downs, bring good energy and give it my all on the court,” he said.

UCSB, 10-5 overall, evened its Big West record at 2-2 to move to within a half-game of third place. Fontenet said the Gauchos didn’t panic after going 0-2 during the league’s early start in the first week of December.

“We knew we were going to be fine,” he said. “We’ve had guys in and out with injuries, so next man up.

“But people are getting healthy. We’re finding our rhythm. We’re starting to play together and doing what we do.”

The Gauchos led by as many as 24 points before Bakersfield (8-9, 2-3) rallied to within eight.

They out-shot the Roadrunners 50% to 39.1%, but Pasternack was even more pleased to hold them to just six offensive rebounds — far below their league-leading average of 13.6 per game.

Kenny Pohto grabbed a game-high nine rebounds while scoring 16 points. Fontenet and Ariel Bland each added five rebounds.

“This is a team that is plus-eight on the boards,” Pasternack said of Bakersfield. “We put a bubble on the rim (during this week’s practices) to try to figure how to block them out and not give up offensive rebounds.

“Our guys did a wonderful job of that and won the rebound war 33-27. That was Step One of what we had to do tonight.”

He said they failed at “Step Two,” which was to limit their turnovers to under 10. They finished with 13.

The Gauchos and Roadrunners matched each other by having more turnovers (four) than baskets (three) after the first five minutes.

UCSB trailed 8-7 before four Gauchos took turns making a three-pointer in the next four minutes. Fontenet hit the fourth one to cap an 18-2 run that put UCSB ahead 25-10.

The situation went from bad to worse for Bakersfield with the automatic ejection of Jemel Jones, its leading scorer on the year with a 16.4-point average. He was called with a “flagrant-two” technical foul for intentionally pushing Fontenet from behind as he jumped up for a layup.

Fontenet’s two free throws extended UCSB’s lead to 31-13.

Anderson’s second three gave the Gauchos their biggest lead of the half at 36-17. He also answered a 7-0 spree by Bakersfield by assisting UCSB’s next two baskets — a press-breaking layup by Pohto and a dazzling, alley-oop scoop shot by Stephan Swenson.

He said that Pasternack has emphasized to the team that offense alone won’t guarantee playing time.

“So this year I’ve been focusing on guarding my guard, taking pride in the defensive side of the ball and not just focus on making shots,” Anderson said. “I’m going to have off nights. Everyone does.

“When I do have off nights, I want to play great defense and help my team out that way.”

UCSB led 44-29 at halftime and began turning the game into a rout with a 9-0 run to start the second half. Anderson’s transition three off Swenson’s pass, vaulting him past Johnson and into UCSB’s all-time Top 10, gave the Gauchos their biggest lead of 53-29.

But it took Marvin McGhee IV just 44 seconds to make both a three and a runner to trigger a 19-7 outburst that brought the Roadrunners back within striking range. He scored all 11 of his points in the second half.

A three by C.J. Hardy whittled UCSB’s lead to single-digits, 57-48, with 11:09 to go. He led all scorers with a career-high 25 points which included 12-for-13 shooting from the foul line.

Pohto stopped the Gaucho bleeding with a three-point play off Fontenet’s pocket pass. Pohto made 5-of-8 shots and now ranks seventh nationally with a field-goal percentage of .664. UCSB is 50th as a team at .482.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get him the ball,” Pasternack said. “We played keep-away from him tonight. … He could’ve had 30.

“We’ll fix that tomorrow. Kenny is a high-percentage scorer and we have to get him the ball more.”

Max Murrell, a graduate transfer from Stanford, added a pair of threes and Anderson hit another in a three-minute span. Murrell, who had scored just eight points in the month of December, emerged from a shooting slump to match his season-high of 11.

“Max was injured the whole month of December, and it really hurt our team,” Pasternack said. “He’s a major weapon for us, to be able to shoot the ball the way he did.

“We ended up starting him tonight to get him some confidence and he did an amazing job.”

Fontenet kept Bakersfield from getting closer than eight points down the stretch by converting a reverse layup and his third three of the game.

“We’ve just got to play together, get more rhythm,” he said. “These are all new guys on the team, but we know what we can do.

“We see it every day in practice, so we’ve just got to put it on the court in games.”