College Basketball Wrap-Up: Rough day for the Gauchos and Smith leaves Cal Poly with another loss
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Here are results from UCSB and Cal Poly basketball for Saturday.
UCSB round-up:
In men's basketball UCSB fell behind 18-2 at home to UC Riverside and never recovered in an ugly 81-64 loss.
The Gauchos finish up 9-11 in the Big West Conference and fail to secure a first-round bye into next week's conference tournament in Henderson, Nevada.
UCSB is the sixth-seed and will play #7 Cal State Northridge on Wednesday, March 13 at 8:30 p.m.
The two teams split the 2 regular season meetings with the road team winning each time.
The Gauchos will have to win four straight games to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
After scoring 37 points on Thursday in a win at Long Beach State, Ajay Mitchell was held to just five points by the Highlanders.
Kaleb Smith tallied a game-high 28 points for Riverside as he was 8-of-10 from three-point distance.
Riverside outrebounded UCSB 39-24.
Josh Pierre-Louis led the Gauchos with 17 points.
In women's basketball UCSB dropped their sixth straight game, 53-46 at UC Riverside.
The Gauchos are the sixth-seed in the Big West Tournament and will play Long Beach State on Wednesday, March 13 at 2:30 p.m.
The two teams split their two games in the regular season with each winning on the road.
Like the men UCSB will have to win four straight games to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
At one time UCSB was 7-1 and leading the Big West but they end up 10-10 in league and 16-14 overall.
Skylar Burke led the Gauchos in points and rebounds with 10 and 11 respectively.
Cal Poly round-up:
Despite a game-high 30 points from Kobe Sanders, Cal Poly lost at UC San Diego 92-87 and finish 0-20 in the Big West and 4-28 for the season.
The game marked the end of John Smith as head coach at Cal Poly.
Smith leaves after five seasons with an overall record of 30-117 including 38 straight losses in Big West regular season play.
His five-year Big West record was 9-77 and his teams never reached 10 wins in any single season.
Back to Sanders he goes over the 1,000 career point mark at Cal Poly.
The senior had six games this year of 30 or more points and his season total of 568 points are the 3rd most ever at Cal Poly in a single-season.
The Cal Poly women's basketball team beat UC San Diego 59-52 to secure a fourth place finish in the Big West at 13-7.
They earn a first-round bye in next week's Big West Tournament and will play Thursday, March 14th at 2:30 p.m. against the winner of the UC Davis-CS Fullerton first round game.
Natalia Ackerman had four blocks giving her a Big West-leading 61 on the year which is also a new Cal Poly single-season record.
Ackerman also had 10 rebounds as Cal Poly improved to 17-12 on the season.
Sierra Lichtie led the Mustangs with 14 points.
