Alan Williams had his way against UC Davis, scoring 28 points and grabbing 11 rebounds to power the UCSB men’s basketball team to a 66-59 Big West win on Saturday night in Davis.
It was the Gauchos’ first road win since Dec. 1 and it snapped a two-game losing streak.
Williams was a force in the paint, making 11 of 18 shots and getting to the free-throw line. He made 6 of 9 from the line.
On defense, Williams blocked four shots and had two steals.
Point guard T.J. Taylor had a perfect night. He was 3-for-3 from the floor, including 2-of-2 from the 3-point line, and made both his free throws for 10 points. He also had six assists. Michael Bryson attacked the basket and got to the free-throw line. He made 4-of-4 and scored nine points.
The Gauchos (6-10, 2-3) went to Williams from the start and the big man produced. He led UCSB to a 33-23 first-half lead.
Corey Hawkins scored 23 points to lead UC Davis (5-10, 1-3).
Hawkins made a floating jumper at the 3:12 mark to pull the Aggies with four, 55-51.
Kyle Boswell drilled a three-pointer from deep in the left corner and was fouled by Josh Ritchart. Boswell made the ensuing free throw to extend the UCSB lead to 59-51.
But UC Davis wasn’t going away as Hawkins made a pair of free throws and Ritchart made a three-pointer of his own to cut the gap back to 59-56 with 1:48 left in the game. But 25 second later, with 1:23 remaining on the clock, senior guard Nate Garth, who sat out Thursday’s game at Pacific with a sprained ankle, took a pass from Michael Bryson on the left wing and buried a three-pointer of his own to give the Gauchos a 62-56 lead.
Hawkins responded for the Aggies by making a three-pointer from above the key with exactly a minute to play. After a UCSB turnover, Hawkins got a chance at another three-pointer, but with 20 second left the shot skipped off the rim and was knocked out of bounds by the Gauchos.
UC Davis had another chance to tie the score with 18 seconds left, but Ryan Sypkens missed a three-pointer from the right corner and this time, T.J. Taylor came down with the rebound. He was fouled immediately, but it was just the Aggies sixth team foul and UCSB had the ball out of bounds.
Taylor was fouled again when the ball was inbounded to him, but not until he slipped away from the first defender and dribbled several seconds off the clock. Olivier-Paul Betu committed his team’s seventh team foul, sending Taylor to the line for a 1-plus-1 with seven seconds to play. The Gaucho sophomore calmly made both free throws to give UCSB a 64-59 advantage.
After another missed three-point attempt by Sypkens, Bryson was fouled on the rebound and like Taylor, he made two free throws to ice the 66-59 win.
“It’s good to see a young team like this face some adversity late in a game and make some plays,” said Gaucho head coach Bob Williams. “We played good team defense in the final minute and some guys made some big shots.”
