Bummer

Steve Virgen

Unexplainable. No excuses. UC Santa Barbara outplayed UC Irvine.

That’s what UCI men’s basketball coach Pat Douglass said after his

team played as if its Big West Conference game against the Gauchos

had little, if any, meaning.

UCSB, on the other hand, displayed a purpose, using a suffocating

defense that led to a 70-54 victory over the Anteaters, who lost

their first home game of the season, Thursday in front of 2,570 at

the Bren Events Center.

It was UCI’s worst home loss in four years and its lowest scoring

output of the season.

The Anteaters (11-6, 5-3 in the Big West) are in a second-place

tie in league with Pacific. The Gauchos (9-9, 6-2), last year’s Big

West Tournament champions, won their fourth-straight game and moved

into a first-place tie with Utah State.

“I don’t know why we didn’t come out and (play with aggression,

confidence and discipline,” said Douglass, whose team shared the Big

West regular-season title with Utah State, but lost to UCSB in the

semifinals of the conference tournament last year.

“Everyone knew this was an important ballgame. They came out,

stuck it to us and exploited us, and we couldn’t fight back.”

Douglass said the Anteaters were outplayed in every phase of the

game. Outplayed, indeed.

UCSB shot better than UCI (49% to 36.6%), which finished 15 for 41

from the field.

The Gauchos took care of the ball. The Anteaters did not. The

‘Eaters had 19 turnovers, 11 in the first half, when Santa Barbara

built a 38-24 lead. UCI had four leads in the first half, the latter

came with 9:31 left after senior guard Mike Hood nailed a

three-pointer while being fouled. He hit the free throw for the

four-point play and gave the Anteaters a 16-15 lead, but the Gauchos

outscored UCI, 23-8, to grab complete control of the game.

Santa Barbara showed patience in its half-court offense, scoring

22 points in the paint to UCI’s 10. The Gauchos’ defense caused

turnovers that led to 28 points.

“In a game like this it’s hard to pinpoint any one player and try

to say whether he played well,” Douglas said of his squad. “It’s a

team game, and as a team, I hate to use these words, we just really

fell apart.”

The Gauchos, who were picked to finish first in the Big West media

and coaches’ preseason polls, seemed to improve their play in the

second half. They upped their lead to 46-29, three and a half minutes

into the half, and they increased their advantage to 57-38 with 10:14

left. UCSB maintained its 19-point lead over the next five minutes

and earned its biggest lead, 67-46, with 4:52 left.

“There better be a sense of pride every time we play the game,”

UCSB Coach Bob Williams said. “There’s a sense of confidence that

we’re getting better. There’s a sense of aggressiveness that we have

to attack. This group has a lot of pride. They have a lot of

confidence and they played that way tonight.”

Santa Barbara junior forward Branduinn Fullove, who scored a

game-high 22 points, took over in the second half, finding his points

on backdoor cuts to the basket, turnaround, fadeaway jumpers and free

throws. He scored 16 points in the second half.

“We’re playing our best basketball right now,” Fullove said.

“We’re steamrolling right now. We thought they would be coming after

us because of the loss last year in the tournament. We thought they

would have the hunger. We just brought our best effort and it was

enough to get us up by a lot at the end.”

UCI freshman point guard Jeff Gloger led the Anteaters with 13

points. The Gauchos chose to leave Gloger open and instead turned

their focus on Hood, who had scored 59 points in the previous four

games. Hood finished with seven points.

In the first half, the Anteaters responded with freshman Ross

Schraeder, who hit his first three three-pointers, but that was not

enough to solve Santa Barbara’s defensive plan, as UCI never

established an inside game.

Senior forward Jordan Harris, the Anteaters’ leading scorer this

season, scored five points.

Junior center Adam Parada had six points and junior forward

Stanislav Zuzak did not score.

“We didn’t have the discipline to move the ball to get it inside,”

Douglass said.

“They didn’t guard (Gloger). So, we moved Mike Hood to the point,

and he doesn’t know how to play the point. You put your halfback at

the quarterback position and it doesn’t always work.”

ZOTS -- The Anteaters are now 33-4 at the Bren Events

center, dating back to the end of the 1999-2000 season ... Hood had

his free-throw streak come to an end. He made 23 foul shots in a row.

The school record is 34 by Johnny Rogers (1984-85) ... Santa Barbara

fans, a.k.a. the Gaucho Locos, held a sign that read, “Chocked In

Anaheim,” playing off the letters of the group the CIA, Completely

Insane Anteaters.