{"id":1138,"date":"2024-02-18T08:43:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T18:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/?p=1138"},"modified":"2024-02-24T00:15:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-24T10:15:43","slug":"uc-santa-barbara-holds-off-warriors-77-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/2024\/02\/18\/uc-santa-barbara-holds-off-warriors-77-71\/","title":{"rendered":"UC Santa Barbara holds off Warriors, 77-71"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hawai’i center Bernardo da Silva scored 14 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds before fouling out late in the Warriors’ loss at UCSB. (Chris Kadooka photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Better” was not quite could enough for the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team on Saturday afternoon, as UC Santa Barbara held off the Warriors, 77-71, in Big West Conference action at Goleta, Calif.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A crowd of 1,427 at the Thunderdome watched Ajay Mitchell score a game-high 23 points with five assists and Josh Pierre-Louis add 16 points and four steals as the Gauchos snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 14-11 overall and 7-8 in league play. Freshman guard Tom Beattie scored a team-high 15 points with six rebounds and three assists for UH, which had its three-game win streak snapped and fell to 15-12, 7-8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UCSB and Hawai’i are now tied for sixth place in the conference standings, but the Gauchos are considered the higher seed for now by virtue of them sweeping the two-game regular season series. UCSB won in Honolulu, 78-61, on Jan. 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Warriors played better this time around, even taking an 11-point lead (34-23) late in the first half. But it wasn’t quite enough, as the Gauchos chipped away in the second half and eventually took the lead for good on Mitchell’s floater with 1:24 remaining to make it 72-69. UH cut it to 72-71 on Beattie’s layup 17 seconds later, but that would be it for Hawai’i’s scoring as a turnover and blocked shot killed the next two possessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s tough, because offensively, we’re coming on,” Warriors coach Eran Ganot said in his post-game radio interview. “You see 51 (percent) from the (field), 55 (percent) from 3(-point line), 88 (percent) from the (free throw) line … and you lose the game. Our defense was really good to start the (second) half … We had been able to hang our hats on defensive rebounding, and it wasn’t there for us today. So at the end of the day, the discipline and the possession battle — they had more offensive rebounds and less turnovers, and that was a big difference in a (two-)possession game.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UCSB started quickly, jumping out to a 9-0 lead but Hawai’i answered with its own 10-0 run to lead 10-9 on Justin McKoy’s 3-pointer six minutes in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams then traded baskets for awhile, until Bernardo da Silva’s layup ignited a 14-5 surge capped by his own lefty hook shot to push the Warriors ahead, 34-23, with just under a minute remaining before halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UH enjoyed a 34-25 lead at the break, thanks largely to 6-of-12 shooting from 3-point range, and still led, 42-34, after Noel Coleman’s outside jumper with 15:39 remaining in the game. But Mitchell answered with a 3-pointer two minutes later to ignite a 12-4 surge that erased the deficit as Jason Fontenet scored on an inside jumper to tie it at 46-46 eight minutes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After more back-and-forth — there were 11 lead changes overall by the three-minute mark — Mitchell finally made the eventual go-ahead basket with 1:24 remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Mitchell’s 23 points and Pierre-Louis’ 16, Ganot said the Warriors did a decent job making them earn their scoring opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We tried to make those guys work on both ends, and you feel like you’re doing a good job there,” Ganot said. “But then there’s (our) discipline, our shot selection, the pick-6’s … and you need some easy baskets to break your way, and then you can make the tougher shots. So that part is disappointing, obviously.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawai’i now returns home facing a rare Thursday bye before playing host to Long Beach State on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BIG WEST STANDINGS <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. UC Irvine (12-2)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. UC San Diego (11-3)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. UC Davis (10-4)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Long Beach State (9-5)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. CSUN (8-7)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. UC Santa Barbara (7-8)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. HAWAI’I<\/strong> (7-8)<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. UC Riverside (7-8)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Cal State Bakersfield (5-10)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Cal State Fullerton (4-10)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (0-14)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Better” was not quite could enough for the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team on Saturday afternoon, as UC Santa Barbara held off the Warriors, 77-71, in Big West Conference action at Goleta, Calif. A crowd of 1,427 at the Thunderdome watched Ajay Mitchell score a game-high 23 points with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1138"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1174,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138\/revisions\/1174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warriorinsider.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}