A punishing defensive effort in the second half propelled the UCSB men’s basketball team to an easy victory over Big West foe Cal State Northridge, 72-52, Thursday night at the Thunderdome.
With the win, the Gauchos improve to 15-3 overall with a 6-1 conference mark while CSUN fell to 3-16 overall and 0-8 in the Big West.
It was a close game to start, as UCSB amassed just a 5-point lead at the break. But the second half fully belonged to the Gauchos.
UCSB held CSUN to just 24% shooting from the field in the second half, and 22% shooting from beyond the arc. The Gauchos also out-rebounded the Matadors 23-13 in the final 20 minutes of play.
“This was our fourth game in eight days and coming off an emotional victory on Monday night,” UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said. “I was really disappointed in our effort in the first half. We didn’t have the energy, the fire in our bellies, the urgency, that you have to have to compete for a championship.
“But then, I thought, in the second half, we did a much, much better job. We played defense, we out-rebounded them, and what we have to do, we have to be mature. We cannot take one half off. That’s our problem, but I thought our guys really responded though, in the second half, and did a really nice job.”
Leading the way for the Gauchos was sophomore guard Ajay Mitchell, who dropped in a team-high 18 points on an efficient 73% shooting clip.
In eight of his last nine games Mitchell has scored in double figures, averaging nearly 17 points per game in conference play alone.
“I’m just playing my game and coach trusts me to try to find the open man like Miles (Norris) or make the right play to the basket, Mitchell said “And and I am just playing my game.”
More than just his scoring ability, Mitchell also dished out six assists to just two turnovers. As a team, UCSB had 18 assists to 12 turnovers.
It helped especially when it came to getting the bench players involved, as guard Cole Anderson finished in double-digits for the third straight game, with 11 points.
”I thought our whole team found Cole Anderson, and it’s like you got to find him in transition,” Pasternack said. “AJ found them in the second half, Josh (Pierre-Louis) found them in the first half and 18 assists — man that’s great.
“I told Ajay yesterday and I will tell him again every day, a point guard is judged by did your team win, and what was your assist-to-turnover ratio. And though I’d like to cut one of those turnovers out, and I know 12 turnovers is too many turnovers for our team, 18 assists — when you see that, you know your team is sharing the basketball.”
Senior forward Miles Norris also played a huge role for the team Thursday night, contributing 17 points to go along with five rebounds, four blocks and two steals.
“We have to treat every game the same, Norris said. “No matter who we play, whether it’s UC Irvine or Cal State Northridge, we just got to treat every game the same.”
Norris added that his team was a lot more focused in the second half, helping them take the win.
“Sometimes you don’t come out as hard to start the game, and we go into halftime knowing we got to turn it up in the second half. And we did that,” Norris said.
Koat Keat Tong was also solid off the bench, finishing with a career-high 11 rebounds, five of which came on the offensive glass, while guard Calvin Wishart had six assists to go along with his seven points off the bench.
UCSB led early, going up by as much as 10 in the first half, but the Matadors kept making small runs.
In the first half, UCSB went on an 8-0 run to take a 28-19 lead with just 4:22 left, but CSUN went on an 10-6 run to end the half to go into the break down 34-29.
In the second half, CSUN took an early lead at 38-36 with 15 minutes left to go, as the team was looking for the upset bid.
But after that UCSB went on a 13-0 run over the next four minutes to take a commanding 49-38 lead. From there, the Gauchos mainly led by double digits the rest of the way through.
In fact, after a made 3-point basket by CSUN to cut the lead down to eight at 49-41 with 10:35 remaining, the Matadors would not score another field goal until the 3:15 mark.
By then, the Gauchos had put the game out of reach, leading by as many as 22 in the second half.
“Like I told our guys just now after the game, this game counts as one win just like Monday night counts as one win,” Pasternack said. “It’s the same, there’s no difference. It’s maybe more emotional, but for us, we have to do what we do and have to be a champion every single day.
“I thought we were a champion for half the game, not 40 minutes, and we have to learn how to compete for 40 minutes.”