Overview:
UCSB’s Ben Shtolzberg scores 13 points in his fifth game back from shoulder surgery
UC Santa Barbara is learning a hard lesson: The game of basketball won’t bounce your way when you play it soft.
“We’re soft right now,” coach Joe Pasternack declared after Thursday’s 79-72 defeat to UC San Diego dropped the Gauchos to 0-3 in the Big West Conference.
The Tritons (8-6, 2-0 Big West) jumped out to a halftime lead of 45-24 and withstood a frantic comeback by UCSB (7-6, 0-3) to claim their first win ever at the Thunderdome.
“I’m very disappointed where we are right now,” Pasternack said. “But I take full responsibility.
“Our first half was not good. I told our team that this is 100% on me. I’m the leader. I didn’t have our guys ready to play.”
The Gauchos, the coaches’ preseason pick to repeat as Big West champions, continued a season-long trend by playing a lack-luster, man-to-man defense for the first 26 minutes.
The field-goal percentage of 45.3% they’d allowed coming into the game ranked 291st out of 351 Division 1 teams. Their meager average of 3.8 steals per game ranks 349th.
They lived down to those numbers at the start of Thursday’s game.
“We didn’t play with any passion or heart, for whatever reason, in the first half,” Pasternack said.
UCSB did take an 11-7 lead on a pair of jumpers by Ajay Mitchell. But it all fell apart in the last 13-plus minutes of the first half.
The spiral began with three turnovers during the next three minutes, fueling a 10-0 run for the Tritons.
“I thought we were really dialed in defensively,” UC San Diego coach Eric Olen said. “I mean, that’s a really good offensive basketball team — we saw a lot of that in the second half — but in the first half, we made it really hard for them.”
Bryce Pope shot the Tritons ahead, 17-11, by scoring 12 quick points on 5-for-7 shooting with a pair of three-pointers. He finished with 20 points.
Tyler McGhie took over from there. He came off the bench to make 4-of-6 threes in the first half while scoring 16 of his season-high 25 points. He took UCSB inside in the second half to go 10-for-13 overall and 5-for-7 from three.
“He can score in some different ways and the defense has to account for him,” Olen said. “His gravity helps other guys.”
San Diego surged to its 21-point, halftime lead by out-shooting the Gauchos 55.9% to 44.4%, and out-rebounding them 18-9. The Tritons rebounded more of their own misses than UCSB did, 8-7.
Six of Francis Nwaokorie’s seven total rebounds came on the offensive end.
His Gaucho counterpart, 6-foot-11 Yohan Traore, got only two rebounds total in 31 minutes of play. He scored 11 points although he made just 3-of-7 shots and 5-of-9 free throws.
The Tritons, meanwhile, scored 17 of their first-half points off nine UCSB turnovers.
The rebound and turnover differential allowed San Diego to take 16 more shots than the Gauchos (34-18) during the first 20 minutes.
But UCSB’s defensive letdown was the difference in Mitchell’s mind.
“We’re going to have off nights — we’re going to turn the ball over because we can’t control everything — but we can control our defense,” said last year’s Big West Player of the Year.
Mitchell, who scored a school-record-tying 39 points at UC Riverside on Saturday, led UCSB on Thursday with 14 points — more than six under his average — and four assists.
Josh Pierre-Louis, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, scored a three and a put-back in the first 2½ minutes of the second half. He scored all nine of his points in the final 20.
But the Tritons continued to manhandle UCSB’s man-to-man. Aniwabuwa Tait-Jones drove right through it to convert a three-point play to give San Diego its biggest lead of 24 points, 61-37, with 13:40 to go.
“Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom — and we hit rock bottom tonight — before you turn it around and understand that you’ve got to fight to dig out of the hole you’re in,” Pasternack said. “That’s what we did tonight in the second half.
“We had some unbelievable emotion, and that was by our players who brought it.”
The Gauchos started their comeback with a three-point play by Ariel Bland.
Ben Shtolzberg, a sophomore transfer from Creighton, triggered a 9-0 run by feeding both Pierre-Louis and Traore for layups. Jason Fontenet added a three and Pierre-Louis dunked off a steal to help whittle the deficit to just 65-58.
“I thought in the second half we showed some emotion — Ben especially,” Pasternack said. “He came in and played for the name on the front of the jersey. He competed so hard with incredible emotion, and our guys rallied.”
Shtolzberg, playing a season-high 23 minutes in just his fifth game back from off-season shoulder surgery, finished with 13 points — 10 in the second half — on 4-for-6 shooting. He made 3-of-4 threes and had three assists.
“After being out for a while, every time I step out onto the court I’m very grateful to be playing again,” he said. “A lot of it has been getting my confidence back, getting back into a rhythm again.
“I think today was a step in the right direction.”
UCSB’s comeback, however, was slowed by two turnovers and a missed three. McGhie’s final three helped push the Tritons ahead by 13 with 2:45 to go.
The Gauchos responded with threes by Shtolzberg, Cole Anderson and Mitchell to get within six points, 73-67, with 58.6 seconds left.
But Nwaokorie’s late tip-in — plus six straight free throws by Pope — closed out San Diego’s victory.
“They weren’t rattled at all and they made some big plays down the stretch to finish it off,” Olen said.
Mitchell, who attracted 10 NBA scouts to the game, still has high hopes for the Gauchos this season.
“I believe in this team,” he said. “I think we know what we have to fix.
“The last six minutes we had great energy on defense and moved the ball on offense, and that’s what we have to do for 40 minutes.
“Being 0-3, we now have to grow up and stop being soft, and just be men.”
UCSB will travel next to Cal Poly — which is also off to a 0-3 start in league — for a 7 p.m. game on Saturday.
“If it’s not urgent, then we have bigger issues, in my opinion,” Shtolzberg said. “It’s got to be as urgent as you’ll ever see.”
