The UCSB men’s basketball team showed it knows a little thing about momentum on Thursday night at the Thunderdome.
The Gauchos raced out to leads of 12-0 and 32-10 on their way to a 66-53 Big West victory over UC Riverside.
After a 2-7 start in conference play, UCSB (14-14) has won six of seven and finds itself in a fourth-place logjam with UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Riverside.
“It just puts us up there for that possible four seed and maybe that first round bye, which would be huge,” noted UCSB’s Paul Roemer on the importance of Thursday’s win. “I think even more important is just the momentum going into the tournament.”
The Gauchos need to beat second-place Long Beach State on Saturday in their regular season finale to keep it up. That game is at the Thunderdome at 7 p.m.
Unfortunately for UCSB, the Gauchos’ fate lies in the hands of the Titans. If Fullerton defeats UC Irvine on Saturday, the Titans get the last first-round bye handed out to the conference’s top four teams(top two advance straight to semifinals). But if the Anteaters win and the Gauchos win, then UCSB nabs the coveted free pass due to a sweep of Irvine this season.
The Gauchos used a barrage of 3-point baskets in the early goings to quickly pull out front, hitting eight triples in the first 10 minutes. Will Brew, James Nunnally and Jordan Weiner hit two each to help UCSB get that 22-point first half lead.
“We came out on fire, we were knocking down everything,” Nunnally recalled with a smile.
But while UCSB scored 24 points in the first eight minutes of the first half, the Gauchos had scored only two points in the first 7:45 of the second half before Nunnally knocked down successive jumpers to breathe life back into his team. The freshman accounted for those first seven points of the second half to keep the otherwise unproductive Gauchos afloat.
Despite their streaky tendencies, head coach Bob Williams likes how things are shaping up heading into the tournament.
“When we take care of the ball, and we defend and we compete, we’ve shown we can beat anyone in this league,” he said.
Nunnally tallied a team-high 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting and hit all three 3-pointers attempted. The guard added four rebounds and shared the team-high in assists with D.J. Posely with four.
“He looked awfully good,” observed Williams. “You like how confident he’s playing and how under control he is.”
“You just go with the flow of the game,” was Nunnally’s side. “You can’t come in and try to force it or try to score because that is just going to hurt the team. I just try to play in the flow of the offense and things come.”
Roemer, whose second half 3-pointer was the biggest of the game according to Williams, has taken note of Nunnally’s steadiness too.
“He’s always patient, waiting for his right shot,” he said. “I think he takes good shots everytime. So whenever he shoots I’m not worried about it.”
Roemer eased some UCSB worries himself with a 3-point bucket after Riverside had closed the gap to six during the Gauchos’ drought. Jaime Serna followed with two 3-point plays – one a nice reverse layup off a Roemer bounce pass – and the Gauchos didn’t let it get back under 10.
