Corey Hawkins scored 20 points and visiting UC Davis held UC Santa Barbara to an icy 18.5% shooting from three-point range en route to a 64-56 win at the Thunderdome on Thursday night.
Alan Williams had his 10th double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 rebounds for the home team.
UCSB (7-15 overall and 3-8 in the Big West) dropped its fifth straight game while UCD (9-12 overall and 5-5 in the Big West) ended a nine-game losing streak against the Gauchos.
The Gauchos were sluggish early and never had a lead in the game. At one point the Aggies used back-to-back three-pointers by Tyler Les and Hawkins to take a 29-13 lead with 5:12 to play. A three-pointer by Boswell with three seconds left cut the advantage to 34-22 at the break. It was UCSB?s only three-pointer to that point in the game and ended a streak of nine straight misses.
?We were just bad offensively, especially in the first half,? said head coach Bob Williams. ?We missed three-pointers, lay-ups and power moves at the rim. It was just a bad offensive performance.?
The offense wasn?t the only thing Williams didn?t like in the first half.
?I didn?t think we came out with much energy,? he said. ?There is not excuse for that. I don?t want to hear about mid-terms or injuries, there is no excuse for playing with that little energy in a big game for us.?
After Michael Bryson had a tip-in for UCSB to cut the lead to 48-37 with 9:31 left, the Aggies used a long three-pointer by Ryan Sypkens and a leaner by Hawkins to push the edge back to 53-37 with 6:35 to play.
Bryson?s three-pointer was countered by one from Les to keep Davis in front by 16, 58-42 with 4:24 remaining. The lead dipped to 60-52 when Kyle Boswell sandwiched a pair of Davis free throws with three-point baskets, the second coming with 1:40 on the clock. However the Aggies made enough of their free throws down the stretch and the Gauchos could only get as close 61-54 on a put-back with 58 seconds left.
UCSB was led by sophomore Alan Williams who had 15 points and 13 rebounds. Boswell finished with 14 points and made 4-of-7 shots from three-point range. The rest of the team was 1-for-10 from outside the arc. Bryson had 13 points and eight rebounds. As a team, the Gauchos made 34.9% overall, including just 25.9% in the first half.
Hawkins added a team-high nine rebounds. Sypkens had 15 points for the Aggies, who shot 48.9% overall and hit 7-of-16 three-point attempts.
The Gauchos will remain at home and play Pacific on Saturday night. The game against the Tigers will also be a Legend of the ?Dome night as former UCSB great Lucius Davis will have his Legend banner unveiled at halftime. Davis (1988-92) will join Brian Shaw, Carrick DeHart, Eric McArthur and Jerry Pimm as the men?s basketball Legends of the ?Dome.
