Wesley Haver / Daily Nexus

The UC Santa Barbara Men’s Basketball team got their second conference win of the season against California State University, Bakersfield Roadrunners, securing their tenth consecutive win over the Roadrunners with the final score of 78-66 on Jan. 9. The Gauchos’ success in this game was largely due to a focus on getting and maintaining possession of the ball.

Head coach Joe Pasternack commented after the game, “Bakersfield is plus-eight in rebounding and our goal was not to give up offensive rebounds, and our team did a great job of that. We won the rebounding battle 34-27, and they only had six offensive boards.”

The game started off with a bang as Senior guard Jason Fontenet II hit an early three-pointer and gave the Gauchos the lead. Fontenet led the Gauchos in scoring with a total of 17 points. Nine of those came from three-point shots. The Gauchos stayed consistent on the attack and dominated on defensive rebounds. Multiple three-pointers extended the lead for UCSB, including one that put Senior guard Cole Anderson in the top nine for all-time three-pointers in Gaucho history. Anderson now has 184 three-pointers in his career. This all-around performance proved to be overwhelming for the Roadrunners leaving the Gauchos up 44-29 at the half.

The Gauchos did not slow down to start the second half with six unanswered points extending the lead immediately to 50-29. The Roadrunners had a sudden surge on offense with multiple three-pointers to answer back, making the score 53-37 in the midpoint of the second half. Despite this, the Gauchos held onto their lead with the help of more threes from Anderson, key layups from Graduate guard Stephen Swanson and big help from Senior forward Kenny Pohto who totaled nine rebounds and 16 points on the day. This dominant game plan and performance from Pasternack and the Gauchos ultimately guaranteed victory on the Thursday night matchup against California State University, Bakersfield. 

The UCSB Men’s Basketball team improved to 10-5 and 2-2 in conference matchups. They hope to bring this momentum to the next matchups as they are set to take on UC Riverside in another conference matchup at home in the Thunderdome on Jan. 16 at 7 p.m.

A version of this article was printed in the Jan. 16 edition of the Daily Nexus