UCSB Gauchos (12-7, 5-3 Big West) at Long Beach State Beach (8-12, 4-4 Big West)
Long Beach, California; Saturday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: UCSB takes on Long Beach State after Zion Sensley scored 20 points in UCSB’s 107-67 victory against the Cal Poly Mustangs.
The Beach have gone 7-3 at home. Long Beach State gives up 76.7 points and has been outscored by 1.5 points per game.
The Gauchos are 5-3 in conference matchups. UCSB is sixth in the Big West with 15.1 assists per game led by Aidan Mahaney averaging 2.7.
Long Beach State is shooting 45.8% from the field this season, 1.0 percentage point lower than the 46.8% UCSB allows to opponents. UCSB has shot at a 48.6% rate from the field this season, 1.4 percentage points above the 47.2% shooting opponents of Long Beach State have averaged.
The matchup Saturday is the first meeting this season between the two teams in conference play.
TOP PERFORMERS: Rob Diaz III is averaging 7.9 points and 3.2 assists for the Beach. Gavin Sykes is averaging 21.8 points over the last 10 games.
Mahaney is shooting 39.6% from beyond the arc with 2.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Gauchos, while averaging 14.4 points. CJ Shaw is shooting 56.5% and averaging 12.6 points over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Beach: 6-4, averaging 79.2 points, 29.3 rebounds, 14.9 assists, 7.8 steals and 3.8 blocks per game while shooting 49.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 76.3 points per game.
Gauchos: 5-5, averaging 79.9 points, 30.7 rebounds, 16.0 assists, 6.8 steals and 2.4 blocks per game while shooting 51.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.0 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.