It’s not how you start but how you finish.
Orlando Johnson didn’t start for the first time this season, coming off the bench to score 25 points – 19 in the second half – to lead the UCSB men’s basketball team past the University of San Francisco 76-65 at the Thunderdome on Monday.
“It doesn’t matter who starts, it just matters who finishes, that’s how I look at it,” said UCSB forward James Nunnally, with a season-high 20 points.
“I got off to kind of a slow start but I can’t blame that on coming off the bench,” said Johnson, who upped his team-leading scoring average to 21 points per game. “I just got to be ready mentally and physically when I get out there.”
The sophomore missed the last two days of practice after opening up his shin and receiving stitches in last week’s win against Weber State, but ended up playing a team-high 31 minutes.
“It’s not important who starts, what’s important is how many minutes you play,” said Gauchos head coach Bob Williams, who used 12 players, yet admitted to playing Johnson more than he wanted.
“We needed him tonight and he was so good in the second half that I just didn’t want to take him out much.”
Johnson just missed his second straight double-double with nine rebounds, but now has the team lead in that category too, at eight per game. The 205 pound sophomore also got untracked at the free-throw line, making 9-of-12 after making only 9-of-19 in his first two contests.
The Gauchos (3-0) led from start to finish, jumping out front quickly behind James Nunnally, who scored UCSB’s first six points on two 3-pointers, one from each corner.
James Powell stole the ball from the Dons’ Kwame Vaughn on the next possession and took it down the court himself for a layup. Two strong Jaime Serna post moves later and the Gauchos had a 12-4 lead after three minutes of play.
San Francisco settled in and climbed back into the game pulling within one twice in the first half at 21-20 and 27-26. Each time UCSB scored on the next possession to maintain its lead.
USF’s Dior Lowhorn, a preseason Mid-Major All-American, had his best game of the season for the Dons (2-2). The 6-foot-7 forward scored a season-high 26 points on 11-for-17 shooting with two steals and three rebounds.
Lowhorn really went to work in the second half, at one point scoring 12 of USF’s 14 points during a seven-minute stretch that helped pull the Dons to within four points at 59-55.
“I do want our guys to know that they fought, but I don’t see a whole lot of silver lining in losses,” said USF head coach Rex Walters. “There were things that we did well, but there’s a lot more stuff that we didn’t do well and must improve on.”
UCSB responded heavy-handed to the shrinking lead, using four free throws from Sam Phippen and Johnson along with another 3-pointer from Nunnally to bounce the lead back up to 11. Two minutes later, Johnson put the nail in the coffin with a driving bucket as the shot clock expired that turned into a 3-point play.
Vaughn had a sub-par game for San Francisco. The sophomore guard came into the game shooting over 50 percent and averaging nearly 19 ppg. On Monday, he topped out at 12 points and was 2-for-8 from the field.
Serna is going the other way for the Gauchos, connecting on six-of-seven attempts to score 13 points while collecting seven rebounds.
UCSB takes to the road for the first time this year in its next game, a non-conference tilt with Loyola Marymount on Saturday. The Dons return home to host Montana State on Wednesday, a team the Gauchos will play in three weeks.
