STOCKTON — Despite a solid defensive effort that limited Pacific to 39.3% shooting and just 58 points, UC Santa Barbara couldn’t get anything going offensively and dropped a 58-36 decision to the Tigers in Stockton on Saturday night. In the game, Chris Devine became the seventh UCSB player to eclipse the 1,400 point mark and now has 1,404.
Both teams struggled on the offensive end in the first half. UCSB trailed 11-5 with 13:20 left, but used its own 11-5 run, capped by a lay-up from freshman James Nunnally, to take a 16-13 lead with 5:46 remaining in the half.
Just over a minute later, freshman guard Will Brew, Jr., was fouled going for a lay-up, but he missed both free throws and Pacific took advantage, scoring eight unanswered points to assume a 21-16 edge. Tiger guards Chad Troyer and Michael Kirby each made three-pointers during the run with Kirby’s finishing things off.
Nunnally, who attended nearby Weston Ranch High School in Stockton, cut the gap to 21-18 with a nice drive along the baseline that ended in a slam dunk. Troyer and Devine traded free throws in the final 41 seconds and the halftime score was 23-20 Pacific.
Both teams shot poorly in the first half. UCSB made 36.8% of its shots, while the Tigers hit just 25.0%. Pacific, however, had 13 more field goal attempts (32-19) because the Gauchos committed 11 first half turnovers.
Pacific scored the first nine points of the second half to take a 32-20 lead with 18:24 left. Another pair of free throws by Devine narrowed the gap to 32-22. Troyer and UCSB’s Sam Phippen traded three-point baskets and it was 35-25. Lay-ups by Anthony Brown and Bryan LeDuc bumped the lead back to 14 at 39-25 with 15:36 left.
A Devine lay-up off of a nice feed from Jaimé Serna made it a 12-point game, 39-27, with 13:57 to play, but the Gauchos would get no closer and were outscored 19-9 the rest of the way, resulting in the 58-36 defeat.
UCSB made just 12-of-42 shots from the field, 28.6%. In the second half, the Gauchos hit just 5-of-23, 21.7%, while Pacific got hot, making 14-of-24, 58.3%, including 5-of-8 from three-point range.
The 36 points scored by Santa Barbara were the fewest that the program has scored since the shot clock became a part of the game.
The Gauchos were led by Nunnally who finished with nine points and five rebounds. Devine had eight points and seven rebounds. The eight points gives the Eagle River, Alaska native 1,404 points in his career. He became the seventh player in school history to eclipse the 1,400 mark.
Pacific was paced by Troyer who, on the strength of four three-point baskets, scored 14 points. Joe Ford had 13, including nine in the first five minutes of the game. LeDuc ended with seven points, but added a game-high 12 rebounds.
UCSB returns home on Thursday, Jan. 29 to host Cal State Northridge in a game that will tip-off at 8:00 p.m. to accommodate an ESPNU telecast.
