Two mothers flew from Finland to California to visit their college students at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.
Miro Little and Viljami Vartiainen responded by flying long distance with the basketball.
UCSB’s Flying Finns helped the Gauchos tie a school record with 18 three-pointers and beat Michigan’s Oakland Univerity 90-67 at the Thunderdome.
“Both of their moms flew in yesterday, landed at 5 o’clock at LAX,” UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said. “Miro’s mom surprised him at 8:45 in the morning — we had like a surprise attack before shootaround.
“He was kind of not playing great, and we felt like we better have the mom come in for the kill here.”
Little responded with eight assists and just two turnovers while adding a pair of threes which kick-started the Gauchos’ big second half.
His mother, Kati Packalen, played basketball at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York and is now the managing director for the Finnish National Basketball Team.
“She was supposed to come here in March, I think, but I had no idea she was coming today,” Little said. “I was super happy to see her … but that’s why I was a little bit nervous on the free throw.”
He made just 1-of-4 foul shots.
His mom flew the 5,600 miles with Vartiainen’s mother, Susanna Strömberg.
Vartiainen, a Weber State transfer, came off the bench to ignite UCSB’s three-point barrage by making 5-of-9 long balls and scoring a team-high 20 points.
He shot 42% from three for Weber last year but went 0-for-2 from distance in last Monday’s season opener against San Francisco State.
Vartiainen couldn’t remember the last time he’d failed to make a three in a game, but he came out firing on Saturday.
“Once you get going, you get going,” he said. “We’ve been working a lot as a team, and obviously, I work a lot on what I do best, which is shooting.
“I just feel confident in what I do.”
Playing with Little, his former teammate with Finland’s U18 team, has eased his transition to UCSB. They’ve played both with and against each other on various teams.
“Before he came out to the states, we played a little bit in high school, and then we played on the younger, U18 national team,” Vartiainen said. “Going against him is always a tough challenge, the player he is.
“But being on the same team is even better.”
Little said he didn’t waste time in helping UCSB recruit him.
“He’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever played with,” he said. “When I saw him in the transfer portal, I was super-excited and just called him pretty much right away.
“I was like, ‘Is there a chance that you would come here and we would link up again?’”
Eight Gauchos made at least one three-pointer. The 18 makes in 29 tries tied the record UCSB set in 1995 in a game at New Mexico State. The Gauchos needed 38 attempts that night.
Oakland, which opened its season with a defeat at defending national champion Michigan, bused 300 miles to Santa Barbara after losing at Stanford on Friday.
But it still had its own shooting legs in the first 11 minutes.
The Grizzlies made five of their first nine three-point attempts — several from well beyond the arc — to take a 17-13 lead.
Nassi Mashhour sank three of the long bombs in the first five minutes, but none in the last 15 of the first half. He made one more in the second half and finished with a team-high 19 points.
“Oakland coach Greg Kampe is one of the best coaches in the country, the evidence of that is having been the head coach for 43 years at the same place,” Pasternack said. “That’s unprecedented.
“Maybe it would have been a different story if they had more prep time and rest, but I’m not going to take anything away from our players.
“We really competed hard. We shared the ball. When you have 25 assists and just six turnovers … that’s unprecedented.”
Aidan Mahaney got UCSB started with a transition three off R.J Smith’s pass.
He finished with 16 points while making 4-of-5 three-pointers.
C.J. Shaw added 10 of his 14 points in the second half.
Smith, a transfer from DePaul, made a three of his own to give the Gauchos their first lead, 18-17, since the game’s opening minutes. He finished with seven assists and no turnovers.
“R.J. Smith’s just done an amazing job all summer,” Pasternack said. “We’re very fortunate to have him.
“He can really defend. He’s a complete player.”
Vartiainen joined the fun with back-to-back threes to increase the margin to 24-20. Mahaney and Michael Simcoe added one apiece as UCSB pulled steadily ahead.
“Viljami changed the game,” Pasternack said. “It was like neck-and-neck, they were up in the first half, and then thank goodness we got him in.
“He’s just a sniper. He flashed to the middle of the zone, hit a two, then hit a couple threes. And man, I’m just glad he’s with us.”
Vartiainen scored on a backdoor cut off Marvin McGhee’s pass to end the first half and improve the margin to 38-27.
Oakland made just 2-of-11 shots and 1-of-7 threes in the last nine minutes of the period.
The Gauchos shot an even 50% for the entire half and were even better from three at 60% (6-for-10).
They got hotter after the break, making 7-of-8 long shots in the first nine minutes.
Vartiainen’s last three came while getting fouled by Oakland’s Brady Swartz with 11:50 still to go. His teammates greeted him during the timeout by turning the huddle into a bumping-and-pushing mosh pit.
“All the guys have taken me in,” he said. “It’s been a smooth ride … It’s been fun.
“That kind of little interaction says a lot about our team and where we are right now.”
He made the free throw for a four-point play to increase UCSB’s lead to 62-43.
The Gauchos got the long ball rolling again after a four-minute lull, firing in five threes in a three-minute outburst.
They made more threes (18) than twos (12), and finished with an overall shooting percentage of .517.
Antonio Chol, a transfer from New Mexico, got UCSB to the school record with 4:11 to go with back-to-back bombs.
“We get better every day,” Little said. “I think that’s the best part of the team.
“I feel like I know on next Wednesday when we play Nevada, we’re going to be even better.”