Gauchos can’t overcome sloppy first half in 79-76 home loss to UTEP
UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - UCSB committed 11 of their 16 turnovers in the first half and never recovered in a 79-76 home loss to Texas El-Paso.
It's the first Gauchos loss in five games this year while the Miners improve to 3-1.
(Slow start dooms UCSB. Entenza Design).
The Gauchos never led in the game and were behind 12-2 in the first four minutes.
“As I told our team just now, this was totally on me," said Gauchos head coach Joe Pasternack. "I thought we didn't have great practices the last two days to prepare us for a game like this, and we got what we deserved. The first four minutes, it was 12 to 2, and we couldn't recover from there. I thought our guys fought back, but they shocked us, they punched us in the face. We played very comfortably. We've been very comfortable the last three days, and that's 100% on me to not allow anyone in this program to feel comfortable.”
UCSB finished the final four minutes of the first half strong and trailed 37-32 at the break.
(Jason Fontenet II kept UCSB close with 20 points. Entenza Design).
UTEP built the lead back into double-digits and Ahamad Bynum gave the Miners a 64-50 advantage with his fourth and final three-pointer of the game with 7:47 to play.
Bynum was 4-of-5 from beyond the arc and scored 15 points and as a team UTEP made 11-of-22 from downtown.
The Gauchos kept closing the gap with Stephan Swenson, Jason Fontenet II, and Kenny Pohto all had solid games.
(Swenson scored 13 of his points in the second half. Ententza Design).
Swenson finished with 17 points, Fontenet II tallied 20 points while Pohto led UCSB with 21 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
A layup by Pohto with 33.5 seconds left brought UCSB within four points at 73-69.
(Pohto led UCSB in points and rebounds. Entenza Design).
But UCSB never could quite climb the mountain.
The Miners were led by Devon Barnes who scored a game-high 23 points.
This was the first of a 4-game homestand for UCSB who host Eastern Washington on Tuesday, November 26.
(Quote provided by UCSB Athletics).
