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<\/p>\nBAKERSFIELD \u2014 A pair of starters stood up to the challenge of getting benched for the start of UC Santa Barbara\u2019s basketball game at Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Zion Sensley\u2019s 13 points and eight rebounds, along with Hosana Kitenge\u2019s clutch put-back with 50.1 seconds remaining, helped the Gauchos snap a three-game losing streak with a 75-69 victory.<\/p>\n
The two frontliners had just one rebound apiece in last week\u2019s home defeat to UC Davis.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we talked to Hosana about was, \u2018Rebound, rebound, rebound, rebound!\u2019\u201d Gaucho coach Joe Pasternack said. \u201cAnd it was, \u2018Zion \u2026 Rebound, rebound, rebound, rebound!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s your only chance to beat Bakersfield on the road. You have to win the rebounding war.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re physical, their front line is enormous, and their three (small forward) is huge \u2026 And that\u2019s how they beat you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victory moved UCSB (10-7, 3-3 Big West Conference) into a four-way tie for fourth place with Davis, UC San Diego and Long Beach State in the league standings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had seven really good days of practice and really honored the process, and I thought our defense got better,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cWe out-rebounded them 32-to-20, which I thought was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bakersfield (8-11, 2-5) actually out-shot the Gauchos 47.3% to 44.7%. But UCSB made 10 of its 26 three-point attempts \u2014 three apiece by Sensley and Miro Little \u2014 and 23-of-29 free throws.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a big part of the Davis game,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cWe missed nine free throws against Davis, which ultimately cost us the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colin Smith led UCSB with 16 points, Little added 12 with four assists, and C.J. Shaw chipped in 10 points.<\/p>\n
The Gauchos\u2019 first four baskets were three-pointers.<\/p>\n
Marvin McGhee IV, a junior transfer from Bakersfield, made the first two in the opening three minutes. He and Evans Kipruto both made their first starts of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Marvin did a great job in the beginning, and Evans, too, and that got us off to a good start,\u201d Pasternack said.<\/p>\n
Little, in only his second game back from a foot injury that sidelined him for six contests, and Smith added the next two three-pointers.<\/p>\n
Sensley sank the last two threes of the first half to send UCSB into the locker room with a 38-29 lead.<\/p>\n
Two more threes by Little and Smith increased the margin to 14 points, 46-32, in the opening minutes of the second half.<\/p>\n
But the Roadrunners went to a full-court press to rally to within three points, 72-69, in the final minute. UCSB committed seven of its 11 turnovers in the last 6:47.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we had the game in control and we just kind of took our foot off the pedal at the end of the game, and you can\u2019t do that,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cThat\u2019s how teams get back into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kitenge\u2019s put-back with 50.1 seconds left pushed the Gaucho lead up to 72-65.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Roadrunners made one last push, getting two free throws from Dailin Smith and a layup by Mike Price off UCSB\u2019s final turnover to rally to within 72-69 with 32.5 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
But two free throws by Little and another by Shaw kept the Gauchos ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a team that went on the road and beat Davis,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cI think they\u2019ve won four out of six, and it\u2019s a game on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cGames are hard to win on the road in college basketball. People think you just need to show up, but it doesn\u2019t work like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
UCSB will return home to face first-place Hawai\u2019i (13-3, 5-1) on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Rainbow Warriors are tied atop the Big West standings with UC Irvine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the best team in our league I think,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t even make the conference tournament last year. How about that?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s college basketball \u2026 Credit to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fans attending Saturday\u2019s contest will receive UC Santa Barbara-branded Hawai\u2019ian shirts. All Santa Barbara-area students, from kindergarten through grade 12, will be admitted free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD \u2014 A pair of starters stood up to the challenge of getting benched for the start of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-135937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}