Overview:
Gaucho guards Ajay Mitchell and Josh Pierre-Louis combine for 42 points to keep UCSB a game ahead of Irvine in the Big West Conference standings
The human X factor of the UC Santa Barbara basketball team checked off the win column once again.
Josh Pierre-Louis followed up Thursday’s end-game heroics at Long Beach State with a complete-game performance in Saturday’s 84-74 triumph over UC Davis at the Thunderdome.
The senior guard scored 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, handed out eight assists, grabbed seven rebounds and frustrated Ty Johnson enough with his defense that the Aggie guard wound up scuffling with another Gaucho in the closing minutes.
“Josh is definitely an X factor for us,” UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said. “When he’s locked in — that’s our word for it — he’s one of the best players in the league.”
Ajay Mitchell scored a team-high 24 points, making 9-of-13 shots and all five of his free throws, to keep the Gauchos one game ahead of UC Irvine in the Big West Conference race. UCSB (20-4, 11-2 Big West) and Irvine (17-8, 10-3) will meet in a first-place showdown at the Thunderdome on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
The Gauchos, however, will be without their starting center for the contest. Andre Kelly and UC Davis’ Johnson were ejected for fighting with 3:19 to go and, by NCAA Rule 10, Section 5, Article 11, must serve a one-game suspension.
UC Davis also announced that it is suspending assistant coach Jonathan Metzger-Jones, a former UCSB assistant, for one game “pending further review, following his actions and involvement in the incident.”
Kelly averages a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game as well as 9.2 points on 56.9% shooting. The Gauchos normally play only a three-man rotation in their two post positions, and one of those players — freshman Koat Keat Tong — had to leave Saturday’s game with a knee injury.
It will leave UCSB severely shorthanded for its first-place battle with the Anteaters.
“We don’t look (at the standings), but we just want to win every single game that we play,” Mitchell said. “We want to win every game, we want to be the No. 1 team in the Big West, we want to win the conference tournament, and we want to win in the (NCAA) Tournament.
“That’s what we’re trying to do.”
UCSB’s only loss in the last eight games was the previous Saturday’s 72-67 upset at 10th-place Cal State Northridge. Pierre-Louis missed the second half of that contest with a hip injury, but he’s bounced back in a major way.
“Coming back this game, I’m full throttle,” he said. “In practice, I’ve been so locked in lately. So focused on getting better, day-by-day … It’s starting to show.”
Miles Norris contributed 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds for a Gaucho team that out-shot the Aggies 61.1% to 43.1% overall and 44.4% to 25% from the three-point line.
“Anytime you get 18 assists, you’re really sharing the ball,” Pasternack pointed out. “We shot 61%. Basketball is a game of percentages. The team with the best percentages wins.”
Calvin Wishart spurred UCSB to a 20-11 lead when he came off the bench to score 11 points in a four-minute outburst. The spree included two three-pointers and a three-point play. He fouled out, however, after having played only three minutes of the second half.
The Gaucho bench was further diminished when left the game with a gimpy knee after scoring five points in just seven minutes of play.
Big West scoring leader Elijah Pepper rallied Davis to within a point, 30-29, with less than three minutes to go in the first half. Pepper, who made 12-of-19 shots which included 11-of-13 from inside the three-point line, had 17 of his game-high 30 points by halftime.
Pierre-Louis, however, lit a fire under the Gauchos just before the break. Wishart found him flashing toward the basket to assist him twice in the closing minutes of the first half. The back-to-back scores nudged UCSB’s lead up to 38-32 — and set the stage for its blistering start to the second half.
The Gauchos made their first 11 shots of the period — three which were scored by Pierre-Louis and three others which he assisted — to surge to a 61-40 lead with nearly 13 minutes still left to play.
“Being efficient, making the right plays, seeing open guys — it’s all about that, basically,” he said.
Pierre-Louis capped UCSB’s 23-to-8 start to the second half by scoring on consecutive back-cuts along the baseline. Kelly’s pass connected with him for the first one and Mitchell assisted him on the second.
“I think Josh and I have had that chemistry from the beginning,” Mitchell said. “I love his game, he loves my game. We play good together.
“He cuts and I find him open.”
The only suspense remaining after UCSB’s seven minutes of shooting perfection was in how the referees would respond to the skirmish between Johnson and Kelly with 3:19 to go.
Johnson, who was held to 4-for-12 shooting by Pierre-Louis’ harassing defense, had his last shot of the night swatted by Kelly. The Gaucho center then pushed Johnson away from his side, causing the Aggie point guard to tumble into Mitchell.
Johnson jumped back to his feet and right into Kelly’s face, going n0se-to-nose, before getting pushed away again. He eventually wrapped his arms around Kelly in a bear hug and pulled him down atop him on the court along the sideline, knocking two fans out of their chairs along “Gucci Row.”
Players from both teams soon joined the pileup. A video replay shows Metzger-Jones rushing to the scene and grabbing Kelly’s head while trying to pull him away from Johnson.
Five quick-reacting security guards and one of the referees alertly separated all of the combatants before any punches were thrown.
Both Johnson and Kelly were charged with flagrant-2 technical fouls and ejected from the game.
Pasternack was pleased that his team, coming off an emotional win at Long Beach, didn’t let down like it had at Northridge after its win over arch-rival Cal Poly.
“Our guys really respect UC Davis,” he said. “Great coach. A very talented team. The leading scorer in the league.
“I mean, he (Pepper) had 30 tonight. He’s a great player. But at the end of the day it’s a team sport.
“I thought our guys really banded together and defended at the end, knocked down free throws — 14-of-17 from the free-throw line, which is terrific — and got 18 assists by really sharing the basketball.”