UC Santa Barbara got the start — and the starting point guard — it’s been missing for the last month in men’s basketball.
But it didn’t get the stops it needed to hold off UC Davis at the Thunderdome on Thursday.
The Aggies shredded the Gauchos’ man-to-man defense in the final 33 minutes to rally from an 18-point deficit for a 93-86 victory.
“We have an issue with defense,” UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said. “We have a bunch of guys that only think about offense individually.
“When you give up 93 points, you’re not going to beat anybody.”
Davis (9-6, 2-2 Big West Conference) shot 51.7% overall and 40.6% from the three-point line (13-for-32) to hand the Gauchos (9-7, 2-3) their fifth loss in the last six games.
Even Miro Little’s impressive return from a foot injury couldn’t keep UCSB from suffering its fifth-straight loss to the Aggies over the last three seasons.
The junior point guard, who missed the previous six games, led the Gauchos with 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting and five assists despite a playing-time restriction that limited him to just 22 minutes of Thursday’s game.
“That’s just part of the plan coming back — making sure my body stays right, and taking care of the body,” Little said.
“I was just super-excited … just super thankful and grateful for all the help that I got during my injury to get me into shape and back out there to play basketball,” he added. “I was super-juiced up, and I’m super-juiced up for the season still.”
UCSB sank nine of its first 11 shots, with four different Gauchos combining to sink 7-of-8 from three-point range.
Little hit the first two, and Marvin McGhee IV capped the game-opening outburst with the seventh long bomb to give the Gauchos their biggest lead of 25-7 with 13:19 still left in the first half.
UCSB was 9-for-11 from three by the time C.J. Shaw and Colin Smith hit back-to-back threes to get the margin to 31-15 with 10:43 remaining in the period.
Shaw finished with 18 points and three assists with just one turnover. Aidan Mahaney added 16 points and three assists.
It was a dramatic reversal from the previous four defeats in which the Gauchos were saddled with double-digit deficits in the opening minutes of each game.
“I researched the best pregame speech possible, and gave them the pregame speech, and it worked for the first four minutes,” Pasternack said. “But the problem is that we’ve been playing with fire since the very first game (by) relying on the three-point shot.
“We went 9-of-11 to start the game, and that’s what we rely on.
“I thought our defense was excellent during the first four to eight minutes of the game. But individuals have to really, really care about defense.”
The Aggies shot their way back by making six threes during a seven-minute span of the first half.
Marcus Wilson’s triple drew Davis to within 37-28 with seven minutes left before halftime.
“I take a lot of responsibility for that,” Little said. “I have to be a better leader and just really focus on the defensive side of the ball.”
The Gauchos’ three-point shooting also faltered. They made just 3-of-14 after their hot start.
They out-shot the Aggies for the game, making 54.7% of their field-goal attempts, but also gave up eight offensive rebounds and 11 second-chance points.
Davis used a 13-4 run to reduce UCSB’s lead to 47-43 by halftime. It then surged ahead with 14-4 spree to open the second half, with a three by Carl Daughtery Jr. giving it a 57-51 lead.
A three-point play by Nils Cooper extended its margin to 70-63 with 9:48 to go.
Cooper led the Aggies with 19 points and seven rebounds. Daughtery added 16 points.
“That second half, we got 50 points scored on us, and that’s just unacceptable,” Little said. “That just can’t happen.”
Koat Keat Tong and Mahaney made a three-pointer within 75 seconds of each other to rally the Gauchos midway through the second half.
Tong, who only recently returned from his own injury, gave UCSB a spark with three rebounds and an assist in just seven minutes off the bench.
“No question, he needs to play more,” Pasternack said.
Little scored a runner and Shaw added a pair of free throws to tie the game at 70-all with 8:52 to go.
But UCSB also missed eight foul shots in the second half — twice in a bonus situation — to stall its comeback.
A three by Shaw and baskets by Little and Mahaney kept the Gauchos within striking distance, but Davis scored on each of its last five possessions to keep them at bay.
“We’re going through a rough stretch,” Pasternack said. “What you have to do during any time of adversity is you have to work hard and you have to grind.
“That’s the only thing I know, personally. That’s all I’ve done my whole life. You just have to keep grinding and keep grinding.
“We’re five games in — we’ve got three quarters of a season to go — but if we don’t figure out how to compete defensively, man for man, it’s going to be a long year.”