NORTHRIDGE — UC Santa Barbara’s hot hand turned cold after it lost its cool — and its center — during Saturday’s men’s basketball game at Cal State Northridge.
The Gauchos were blown out of the Matadors’ Premier America Credit Union Arena, 103-77, after senior Kenny Pohto was ejected with two technical fouls late in the first half.
“We just have to throw this game away,” UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said. “It was a tough one. We didn’t play well and they played great.”
The 103 points were the most UCSB has allowed in more than 17 years — since a 105-70 defeat at North Carolina on Dec. 22, 2007.
The Gauchos (19-11, 11-8 Big West Conference), whose only remaining game is next Saturday’s Senior Night contest against UC Irvine, can no longer finish as high as fourth place and earn a first-round bye in the league tournament.
“We’ve just got to get our team back,” Pasternack said. “We had a great game on Thursday night (against Cal Poly) and we had a tough one today. Our single focus is Irvine.
“Plenty of teams have gone to the NCAA Tournament that have had to win four (league tournament) games. I mean, Connecticut won the national championship that way.”
CSUN (21-8, 13-5) moved past UC Riverside and into third place with Saturday’s win. The 21 victories are its most since the 2000-01 season.
The Matadors had their seven-game winning streak halted by Big West leader UC San Diego on Thursday.
“It’s a testament to those guys in the locker room — they don’t like losing,” CSUN coach Andy Newman said. “It hurts them, and that says a lot about who they are and what they are as a team, and what they’re capable of doing.”
The Gauchos kept up with the Matadors through the first 15 minutes by making 8-of-16 three-pointers. Freshman Zion Sensley made the last two, and Deuce Turner’s jumper knotted the score at 36-all.
But an altercation under the Northridge basket resulted in Pohto’s two technical fouls and automatic ejection. CSUN’s Tyler Beard and Grady Lewis were also assessed technical fouls.
“He didn’t fight, there were just some words said, but that was the turning point,” Pasternack said. “It was a tied game and then he got thrown out of the game … and they went on an 18-0 run.”
The Matadors’ defense, no longer worried about any inside threat from UCSB, pressured the Gaucho jump shooters into making only 8-of-27 field-goal attempts and 4-of-18 threes in the final 25 minutes.
Cole Anderson actually gave UCSB a momentary lead of 39-36 by cashing in CSUN’s two technicals with 3-of-4 foul shooting. But Scotty Washington made all four of his foul shots to put the Matadors back ahead with no time elapsing.
The Matadors converted 30 consecutive free throws until they finally missed with 2:18 to go.
They out-shot the Gauchos from the floor 56.7% to 39.2% and out-rebounded them 39-19.
“They’re the No. 1 rebounding team in our league,” Pasternack said. “Man, they have some great athletes.
“Northridge is really good. I think they’re as good as anybody in our league, talent-wise.
“They had it tonight and we didn’t, that’s for sure.”
Jason Fontenet II led the Gauchos in scoring for the second-straight game with 18 points. Stephan Swenson added 15 while Colin Smith scored 12.
Washington, who was held to four points on 1-for-8 shooting in Thursday’s loss to San Diego, bounced back to lead the Matadors on Saturday with 23 points.
“He was very disappointed after his performance on Thursday, but he prepared well yesterday,” Newman said. “He had a look in his eye today that I knew good things were going to happen.”
Marcus Adams Jr. added 20 points.
“Anytime you score 100 points, that’s not one or two guys, that’s the whole team,” Newman said.