![\"UCSB's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/120425-Colin-Smith.jpeg\")
UCSB\u2019s Colin Smith splits the defense of Long Beach State\u2019s Petar Majstorovic, left, and Christian Jones on a drive to the basket on Thursday at the Thunderdome. Credit: Jeff Liang \/ UCSB Athletics Photo<\/p>\nUC Santa Barbara\u2019s starters keep dropping, but so did the free throws during Thursday\u2019s Big West Conference men\u2019s basketball opener.<\/p>\n
Aidan Mahaney and Colin Smith combined to make 21-of-22 foul shots to hold off Long Beach State for an 84-77 overtime victory at the Thunderdome.<\/p>\n
The Gauchos (7-2), who lost star point guard Miro Little to a leg injury late in the first half, pulled out the victory by making 24-of-29 free throws after the break (32-of-38 for the game).<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our guys battled until the end,\u201d UCSB coach Joe Pasternack said. \u201cEvery conference game is a battle \u2014 it\u2019s a war \u2014 and I\u2019m really proud of our guys\u2019 resiliency without Miro Little.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to adjust on the fly, and I\u2019m really, really proud of our guys\u2019 resiliency tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mahaney picked up the slack for Little at point guard by making 11-of-11 free throws to finish with a season-high 26 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was everything to have someone with experience that\u2019s done it before,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cHe also led us in rebounding (getting six, as did reserve guard Marvin McGhee IV).<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s some toughness for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith, who scored all 18 of his points after halftime, said the Gauchos needed a team effort after losing Little, a national team player from Finland.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiro, he brings a little bit of everything \u2026 Defense, rebounding, passing the ball, scoring,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving guys like Marvin McGhee and C.J. Shaw come in there and hold their own, having great minutes, is really helpful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey helped us finish off the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
UCSB\u2019s Colin Smith splits the defense of Long Beach State\u2019s Petar Majstorovic, left, and Christian Jones on a drive to the basket on Thursday at the Thunderdome. Credit: Jeff Liang \/ UCSB Athletics Photo<\/p>\n
Long Beach (2-7), which committed 30 fouls to UCSB\u2019s 25, made 19-of-24 free throws. Freshman Gavin Sykes led the Beach with 24 points while Shaquil Bender added 19.<\/p>\n
Little left the game for good with 4:57 remaining in the first half. The Gauchos were already without co-captain Jason Fontenet II, who missed his fourth straight game with a hip injury.<\/p>\n
Pasternack said Little\u2019s injury was \u201csomething in a lower-body extremity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure out what it is,\u201d he added, \u201cbut the doctors didn\u2019t want to take any chances with him and didn\u2019t have him go back in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith accounted for eight of UCSB\u2019s 17 points in overtime, which included a rare four-point play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it\u2019s your moment, you\u2019ve got to do whatever you need to do to produce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zion Sensley made four three-pointers in the first half while scoring 12 of his 14 points. He hit a pair of them and McGhee added another as UCSB took a 13-10 lead after the first eight minutes.<\/p>\n
The Gauchos, who scored just one more basket in the next six-plus minutes, needed two more threes by Sensley to get even at 27-all late in the first half.<\/p>\n
The lead changed hands 17 times. Mahaney see-sawed UCSB back ahead, 31-30, with a step-back jumper just before halftime.<\/p>\n
Sykes, who missed all six of his shots in the first half, scored his 24 points after the break by making 8-of-15 shots which include four three-pointers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did a great job for them,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cHe took 21 shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we had some breakdowns in coverages where we didn\u2019t do what we normally do.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut kudos to them. They\u2019re a good team. They\u2019re a tough team to play against.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith was also held scoreless in the first half while missing a trio of threes. He finally made one in the third minute of the second half.<\/p>\n
Mahaney kept UCSB ahead, 43-42, with three baskets. They included his lone three of the night with 14:29 left. He also made 6-of-6 foul shots in the final 4\u00bd minutes of regulation.<\/p>\n
Shaw shared his point-guard duties after Little went down.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody has to step up,\u201d Pasternack said. \u201cEvery team has injuries. There\u2019s no excuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s next man up, and that\u2019s what we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sykes sent the game into overtime, 67-67, by curling off a screen to make a three from the top of the key.<\/p>\n
Smith got some separation for the Gauchos midway through the five-minute overtime with a scoring drive and a four-point play on consecutive possessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy shots weren\u2019t falling early, so (Pasternack) told me, \u2018Hey, just drive,\u2019\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can\u2019t stay in front of me, so I was just trying to go to the basket as hard as I can,\u201d he added. \u201cIf I get fouled, I get fouled \u2026 then I can knock down free throws when I get there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat kind of got me started.\u201d<\/p>\n
He made a three-pointer while getting fouled by Isaiah Lewis with 2:37 left in the overtime. His free throw boosted UCSB\u2019s lead to 77-72. He went 10-for-11 from the line on the night.<\/p>\n
Evans Kipruto, who took over at center after Hosana Kitenge fouled out, extinguished Long Beach\u2019s last hopes with 4-for-4 foul shooting and a pair of defensive rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Evans made some huge, huge plays,\u201d Pasternack said.<\/p>\n
UCSB will return to the Thunderdome on Saturday to play Cal State Bakersfield at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UC Santa Barbara\u2019s starters keep dropping, but so did the free throws during Thursday\u2019s Big West Conference men\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-82655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82655","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=82655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}