Isaiah Lee brings the ball up for UC Irvine in Saturday’s championship game. (Photo courtesy Big West Conference)
UC Santa Barbara’s men’s basketball team topped UC Irvine 79-63 in the championship of the Big West Tournament at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas Saturday night to earn the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
UCI (18-9) allowed 70 points for only the fifth time all season. UC Santa Barbara (22-4) made 50 percent of its field goals and hit eight three-pointers to improve to 22-4 overall.
The Gauchos snapped UCI’s six-game winning streak and captured their first Big West Conference title since 2011. UCSB is off the NCAA tournament for the sixth time. UCSB is seeded No. 12 in the West Region and will face No. 5 Creighton on Saturday.
Jaqouri McLaughlin, the tournament MVP, led UCSB with 22 points. Miles Norris scored 19 points and Amadou Sow 13. Sow and teammate Josh Pierre-Louis were named to the all-tournament team.
UCI’s Collin Welp and Brad Greene were named to the all-tournament team.
Welp led UCI with 22 points, making 10 of 19 field goals. He also had four rebounds. Freshman D.J. Davis added 11 points and Austin Johnson had nine points and three blocks. Center Brad Greene had eight rebounds and guard Dawson Baker scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds.
“It is a difficult tme for us to be defeated in this championship game but I give credit to Santa Barbara, they were outstanding tonight, and we were not,” said UCI Coach Russell Turner. “We are also really proud as a coaching staff and a team for all this group has accomplished even though we fell short of our goals in both the regular season and now the tournament. But we had a lot of successes throughout this season and I could not be any prouder of Brad Greene, the captain and the leader of our team.”
“We did a really good job as a team this season staying together and creating our own energy in games,” Greene added. “I feel like this was a phenomenal group and I really looking forward to the future and what this team can accomplish.”
UCI was in the tournament championship game for the fourth year in a row.
Source: UCI Athletic Communications and Big West Conference
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