UCSB’s Chris Devine said he had a special Valentine watching from the stands at the Thunderdome on Saturday.
It certainly seemed to help, as he shared some love with the Gaucho men’s basketball team by scoring a career-high 29 points in a 68-66 Big West Conference victory over Cal Poly.
Devine scored six of UCSB’s final eight points, including two clutch free throws with seven seconds left on the clock that boosted the Gauchos (10-13, 4-7) to their second straight win.
“It was a dead-struggle game,” recalled UCSB head coach Bob Williams. “We had to get a phenonmenal performance out of a six-year senior who is playing the best basketball of his career right now.”
Devine’s 29 points came on 10-of-16 shooting from the field and 8-of-9 from the free throw line.
“I was feeling pretty good,” Devine admitted. “I felt like if I was gettting any daylight I was definitely going to put it up.”
Paul Roemer had drawn the Gauchos even at 66-all by knocking down an open 12-foot jumper from the baseline and a James Nunnally steal on Cal Poly’s following possession gave UCSB a turn with 24.4 seconds left on the clock.
Freshman point guard Will Brew did good to get it into Devine’s hands at the end, penetrating to his right and drawing Cal Poly defenders. He wisely layed it off to Devine cutting through the key before he was fouled.
Devine hit nothing but net on the pair and the Mustangs failed to get off a quality shot in the final seven seconds.
“I’ve never been in that situation where I’m the guy taking the shot at the end of the game – I really haven’t,” said Devine. “I went in to the huddle at the last timeout thinking to myself: man, I really want this one.”
With the win, UCSB started a stretch where six of the final seven regular season games are played in Santa Barbara on the right foot.
“The game just boosted our standing and other teams are going to lose that are ahead of us so that’s just building momentum for us as the season goes on,” said Nunnally, part of a freshman class that – not including Devine’s 29 – scored 60 of the Gauchos’ 68 points.
Nunnally finished with nine points, four rebounds, four assists and UCSB’s only steal. Seven-foot-2 freshman Greg Somogyi had a nice game off the bench, scoring 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting in 18 minutes. He also pulled down six rebounds and blocked two shots.
UCSB takes on Pacific on Wednesday at the Thunderdome.
