![\"UCSB's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/012426-Aidan-Mahaney.jpeg\")
UCSB\u2019s Aidan Mahaney followed up Thursday\u2019s 15-point performance against Cal Poly by scoring a team-high 21 on Saturday at Long Beach State. Credit: Jeff Liang \/ UCSB Athletics Photo<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
Aidan Mahaney scores 15 of his team-high 21 points in the first half while Miro Little leads UCSB with eight rebounds and six assists<\/p>\n
LONG BEACH \u2014 UC Santa Barbara\u2019s C.J. Shaw had trouble finishing his drives to the basket on Saturday at the Pyramid.<\/p>\n
That is, until his big finish.<\/p>\n
The freshman guard from Las Vegas scored on a pair of daring dashes through Long Beach\u2019s defense in the final 2:24 to break a tied game and send the Gauchos on to a 74-71 basketball victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cC.J. Shaw didn\u2019t play very well until the last two minutes of the game, and then he took over,\u201d UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took our lumps when Miro (Little) was out, but this is the kind of a game that shows how C.J. took advantage of all the minutes he got when Miro was out \u2026 He was in these moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victory, the fourth in a row for the Gauchos (13-7, 6-3 Big West Conference), pulls them into a tie for second place in the league standings with UC San Diego and UC Irvine.<\/p>\n
Aidan Mahaney scored 15 of his team-high 21 points in the first half.<\/p>\n
But his last two points of the game were the most important.<\/p>\n
Long Beach (8-13, 4-5) had answered Shaw\u2019s two clutch baskets with four points of its own. Isaiah Lewis\u2019 pull-up jumper reduced UCSB\u2019s lead to 72-71 with 36.4 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
But Mahaney ran the clock down before patiently wading through the key and then bursting past his defender for a left-handed layup with 10.7 seconds left.<\/p>\n
\u201cAidan has so much experience,\u201d Pasternack said of the crafty play.<\/p>\n
Mahaney, a senior transfer from UConn, made 8-of-13 shots which included 3-of-5 three-pointers and 2-of-2 foul shots. He also had three assists.<\/p>\n
UCSB\u2019s Aidan Mahaney followed up Thursday\u2019s 15-point performance against Cal Poly by scoring a team-high 21 on Saturday at Long Beach State. Credit: Jeff Liang \/ UCSB Athletics Photo<\/p>\n
But Pasternack was more impressed with how he held Gavin Sykes, who came into the game averaging 19 points per game, to just two on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that was the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mahaney also held Cal Poly\u2019s Hamad Mousa to 10 points \u2014 more than 10 under his average \u2014 in Thursday\u2019s victory in San Luis Obispo.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier in the year, we were giving leading scorers 30 points, 25 points,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cSo to me, the biggest growth of our team is being able to take the other team\u2019s best player out.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo do that in back-to-back games \u2026 Aidan Mahaney was unbelievable on defense. Unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gets a knock for, supposedly, being all about scoring and not defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I would flip it and say maybe his biggest value is defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
UCSB made five of its first six shots \u2014 the last two coming on three-pointers by Zion Sensley and Miro Little \u2014 to jump out to a 12-7 lead.<\/p>\n
Mahaney scored three times on cuts to the basket during the first seven minutes to keep the Gauchos ahead, 14-9.<\/p>\n
UCSB got more separation a few minutes later, 31-17, with an 11-2 run fueled by threes from Mahaney and Marvin McGhee IV.<\/p>\n
The Gauchos dropped three more of the long-range bombs on The Beach \u2014 two by Mahaney and another by Sensley \u2014 in the last 2:14 of the first half to take a 44-29 lead.<\/p>\n
UCSB out-shot The Beach 59.3% to 47.8% in the period while dominating the rebounding, 15-8.<\/p>\n
The Gauchos cooled off in the second half with 37.9% shooting, with Shaw having four straight, contested layups rim out of the basket during one four-minute stretch.<\/p>\n
Long Beach wound up out-shooting UCSB for the game, 49% to 48.2%<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just too stagnant on offense and it affected our defense,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cWe gave up 42 points in the second half and you just can\u2019t do that, not against good teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
UCSB\u2019s lead grew as large as 17 points, 51-34, after a pair of baskets by Hosana Kitenge in the first four minutes of the second half.<\/p>\n
But the Gaucho center committed his fourth foul just 12 seconds later on a three-point play by Petar Majstorovic.<\/p>\n
Kitenge had to sit out for nearly 10 of the final 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some breakdowns defensively,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cWe\u2019re fouling way too much. It\u2019s a major issue. We have to fix that and get better at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three-point play triggered a big second half for Majstorovic, who scored 19 of his team-high 21 points in the final 17 minutes.<\/p>\n
Long Beach guard Shaquil Bender made a trio of three-pointers while scoring 11 of his 15 points in the second half.<\/p>\n
UCSB had made just one three-pointer in the period until Shaw came alive with a triple off Little\u2019s pass. He finished with 11 points, as did Colin Smith, while Little contributed six assists and a game-high eight rebounds.<\/p>\n
A dunk by Majstorovic and Bender\u2019s final three tied the game at 67-all with 2:52 remaining, forcing Shaw and Mahaney to save the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we had a great, great first half,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cDefensively, we were excellent.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecond half, they threw a punch and we couldn\u2019t withstand it. For whatever reason, we really struggle to put two halves together.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we willed it out and won it in a close game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview: Aidan Mahaney scores 15 of his team-high 21 points in the first half while Miro Little leads…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-148689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148689","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=148689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}