HENDERSON, Nevada — UC Davis is going to miss the UC Santa Barbara men’s basketball team.
The Aggies, who will join the Mountain West Conference next year, beat the Gauchos for the seventh straight time on Wednesday, 79-73, in a first-round game of the Big West Conference Tournament at Lee’s Family Forum.
“Credit UC Davis, I thought they played really well,” UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said. “This was not one of our better games.”
The Gauchos (18-14) have had few the last month, finishing with six losses in their last seven games.
Davis (19-13), the No. 6 seed, advances to face No. 4 Cal State Fullerton in Thursday’s quarterfinals at 8:30 p.m.
Seventh-seeded UCSB, which entered the game as the league’s top three-point shooting team at 37.9%, made just 5-of-26 of its long balls (19.2%). Three of those makes came during the desperation of the final 107 seconds.
The Aggies out-shot the Gauchos overall, 48.3% to 40.3%. UCSB had only five assists the entire game.
“I thought we had some really, really good looks,” Pasternack said. “We really, really struggled to shoot the ball.
“We outrebounded them (38-35), which is a huge key, but defensively, we had way too many breakdowns to have any chance of being successful.”
The Gauchos were cold from the start, missing seven of their first eight shots. The one make was Colin Smith’s putback.
Carl Daughtery Jr. hit his first three shots including a three-pointer to give Davis a quick 7-0 lead. His game-high 24 points included 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range.
“The first three shots felt good coming off my hand,” he said.
He was a Gaucho Killer all season, making a dozen threes in Davis’ three-game sweep of Santa Barbara.
UCSB, which fell behind by as many as 11 points, made 10 free throws to get closer by halftime, 34-31.
The Gauchos made their move in the second half by going inside to center Hosana Kitenge. He scored three of their first four baskets during a three-minute outburst for a 39-37 lead.
Kitenge finished with 15 points on 6-for-6 shooting, three free throws, and six rebounds.
“Hosana has had a lot of ups and downs,” Pasternack said of the graduate transfer from the University of Louisiana. “I thought tonight was his best game. He saved it for his last game.”
But another three by Daughtery, a dunk by Omer Suljanovic, and four straight jumpers by Marcus Wilson boosted Davis back ahead, 52-46, with 10:37 to go.
“When we absolutely had to make a defensive stand, or make a play, or come up with that 50-50 ball, or that rebound in traffic, we made all those plays in the guts of the game,” Aggies coach Jim Les said.
Wilson had 17 points, four assists and three steals.
C.J. Shaw rallied UCSB down the stretch, scoring 14 of his team-high 20 points in the final 11 minutes.
The freshman guard, playing before a hometown crowd, finished with 391 points for the season to tie the school’s freshman scoring record set by Amadou Sow in 2019.
“We played really young guys this year, and we had to because of injuries to Jason (Fontenet II) and Miro (Little),” Pasternack said.
Little added 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists in just his second game back from a broken right index finger.
“He’s going to have surgery in the next 48 hours,” Pasternack said. “The doctor told him not to play. He toughed it out.
“He shouldn’t have played, probably, although I don’t think he can damage it any more.
“It’s displaced — the bone is coming out of his skin. That just shows you the kind of character he has. He did the best he could.”
Senior Aidan Mahaney made just 1-of-11 shots in the first 38 minutes, missing all seven of his threes. He finally thawed out to make back-to-back threes to give UCSB a chance at 71-66 with 49 seconds left.
“It’s probably not how he imagined his last game would go, he really struggled tonight,” Pasternack said. “When he goes 3-of-15, we’re not going to beat anybody.
“But he’s had an incredible college basketball career and can’t be judged by one game, in your last game. It’s not fair to him. He’s had a first-team, all-league year.”
Aggie sharpshooter Connor Sevilla, who was also having an off night, kept the Gauchos from completing their comeback by making 8-of-8 free throws in the final 56 seconds.