There was no three-peat for UC Santa Barbara’s normally deadeye-shooting men’s basketball team in the last 18-plus minutes of Tuesday’s game at the Thunderdome.
The Gauchos suffered their first defeat — a 78-74 overtime thriller — when the three-pointers stopped falling in the second half against unbeaten Loyola Marymount.
“We told the team after the Sac State game that this is fool’s gold, hitting 10, 15 threes a game,” UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said. “You can’t live and die by the three.
“It came down to the rebounding war, and they were tougher than us … More physical than us.”
The Lions used 13 offensive rebounds — getting second-chance points on three separately missed free throws down the stretch — to improve their record to 6-0.
The Gauchos (3-1), whose three-point percentage was .425 coming into the game, built a 40-31 halftime lead on Tuesday by making 6-of-12 three-pointers.
They extended that margin to 14 points by making two more threes in the opening minutes of the second half.
But then they missed their last 13 attempts to finish at 28.6% (8-for-28). They shot 38% overall for the game.
“We got really good shots, we got open shots … We didn’t make them,” Pasternack said. “That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that they had 13 offensive rebounds.
“The problem with our team is we don’t believe in defense and rebounding, we just want to make threes.
“When the threes aren’t falling, we’re in trouble, and that’s what happened tonight.”
Junior point guard Miro Little, UCSB’s leading scorer with 19 points, sent the game into overtime by outscoring LMU all by himself, 9-3, in the final 41.7 seconds of regulation.
But he also accepted blame for the Gauchos’ “terrible showing in the second half” despite finishing with seven rebounds.
“As a leader, I take a lot of responsibility on that,” Little said. “I’ve got to be better personally on that side of the ball and just bring the energy the whole game.”
Jason Fontenet II and Zion Sensley led UCSB with eight rebounds apiece.
Aidan Mahaney scored all 17 of his points in the game’s first 24 minutes. He missed all seven of his shots including four threes in the final 21 minutes.
Colin Smith scored 14 of his 18 points in the first 27 minutes. He made his first four three-point attempts and then missed his last three.
The Lions’ Myron Amey Jr. scored 22 of his game-high 29 points in the last 18-plus minutes of regulation and overtime.
LMU, which entered the game with a three-point percentage of 41.2%, took a quick 12-6 lead while getting threes from Rodney Brown Jr. and A.J. Thomas.
The Lions still led at 25-23 after a euro-step runner by Jalen Shelley with eight minutes left in the first half.
But UCSB turned up the heat defensively in those final eight minutes to surge ahead with a 17-4 run.
Fontenet lit the burner by ripping the ball away from Shelley and passing it to Little for a fast-break layup.
Hosana Kitenge got the ball back by drawing a charge and Smith cashed it in with a corner three off Mahaney’s pass.
“I thought we played hard defensively,” Pasternack said.
Mahaney and Little both hit the floor while scrambling for a loose ball, leading to an LMU turnover and foul.
Mahaney made both free throws and added a three two minutes later to increase UCSB’s lead to 37-29.
He then found Smith for another corner three on a driving kickout pass to boost the margin to 12 points.
The Gauchos shot 46.2% in the first half — 44.8% from three — for a 40-31 lead.
Mahaney and Smith both made threes in the first six minutes of the second half — the latter after an offensive rebound by freshman Michael Simcoe.
Smith’s runner with 13:03 remaining in the second half gave UCSB its biggest lead of 52-38.
But the Gauchos opened the door for LMU by missing their next 12 shots. Half of those were taken from beyond the three-point line.
The Lions responded with an 11-0 run to whittle UCSB’s lead to 52-49 with eight minutes remaining in regulation.
“They’re a big team, they’re a good team, an older team,” Little said. “They know what they’re doing.
“They’re really strong and they know what they’re good at.
“They really crash offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds hard. That’s something we’ve got to be way better at.”
The Gauchos bounced back in the next 3½ minutes, boosting their margin to 60-53 on Little’s turnaround jumper from the middle of the key with 4:38 to go.
But LMU erased nearly all of that lead on its next possession. Thomas drew a foul while spinning inside for a layup. Aaron McBride then rebounded his missed free throw, leading to another three by Amey.
“We got punked at the free-throw line,” Pasternack said. “McBride, No. 16, had 14 rebounds, six offensive rebounds. That was the game.”
Amey added a runner and two more threes to complete a 13-0 run that put the Lions ahead 66-60 with 1:41 left.
Little drove UCSB back in the game, however, by scoring four runners in the last 41.7 seconds. That included a three-point play that reduced LMU’s lead to 68-67 with 26.8 seconds remaining.
The Gauchos, who took advantage of LMU’s 3-for-6 free-throw shooting in the last 38 seconds of regulation, sent the game into overtime on Little’s scoring drive with 10.4 seconds to go.
UCSB’s last lead in the extra period was erased when Shelley got another chance after rebounding his own missed free throw.
He was fouled again and made 1-of-2 foul shots to tie the score at 71-all. Amey’s final three of the night then put the Lions ahead for good.
The Gauchos’ last chance came with 12.7 seconds left in overtime.
Although Fontenet fouled Brown, the officials added a flagrant foul for Brown when a video review showed him throwing out his arm to strike Fontenet in the face.
Brown made his two foul shots and Fontenet missed both of his, leaving LMU’s lead at 76-73.
And although the Gauchos kept possession, they went for a two instead of a three. Fontenet rebounded Little’s last shot attempt and was fouled under the basket.
He made the first free throw and then intentionally missed the second, hoping for a game-tying putback. But he was called for a lane violation while rushing ahead too quickly.