UC Santa Barbara struggled through its worst half of basketball of the season and it proved decisive in a 55-52 loss to Long Beach State on Saturday night at the Thunderdome
The Gauchos (12-5, 1-1) led Long Beach (6-12, 1-1) 30-25 at halftime, but then went into a deep struggle. Long Beach outscored UCSB 30-22 in the second half as the home team made just 6-of-26 field goal attempts overall (23.1%) and a mere 2-for-10 (20.0%) from three-point range.’
“Tonight, we didn’t do what we needed to do,” said UCSB head coach Joe Pasternack. “Give them (LBSU) credit, they did what they had to do and they beat us.”
Santa Barbara led for much of the game, but when Long Beach took the lead, it took it for good.
Max Heidegger took an inbounds pass and laucnched a three-point attempt as time ran out. The shot was off-target and the game was over.
JaQuori McLaughlin and Amadou Sow eached had 15 points for the Gauchos. Sow also had nine rebounds while McLaughlin had six boards and was 3-for-5 from three-point range. Devearl Ramsey had 10 points, five assists, three rebounds and three steals
Chance Hunter had 16 points for Long Beach State. Joshua Morgan and Michael Carter III each had 10 points,
UCSB will travel to Hawai’i on Saturday, Jan. 18 in a game that will tip-off at 10pm (PST)