Dec. 15, 2013
Box Score
(San Diego, Calif.) - The Toreros were dealt a 72-61 loss by the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (5-3) today before 1,609 fans at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. The loss drops USD to 8-4 and they'll play their final nonconference game on Saturday at the JCP against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds at 2:00 pm. Despite getting 19 points from Duda Sanadze, 18 points from Johnny Dee and a double-double from Dennis Kramer (17 points, 11 rebounds), USD dropped its third straight game to UCSB in their series.
"They are a good team... we knew that coming in," said head coach Bill Grier. "The reason we've won the games we have this year is we have defended pretty well and this is the first time since maybe the first half of our Monterey Bay exhibition game that we just didn't guard. We didn't guard like we are capable of, and we just didn't seem to have a lot of energy. When Williams (Al) went out in the first half with foul trouble they spread us out and did a good job knocking down their threes. At the end of the day if Chris and Johnny go 7-for-29 we are going to struggle. We go as they go. But we did get a great effort out of Dennis with 17 points and 11 rebounds."
In the first half UCSB's leading scorer Alan Williams ( 26 points per game) picked up two quick fouls and sat on the bench the rest of way seeing just three minutes without scoring. Unfortunately the Toreros were not able to capitalize as they had numerous open looks but the ball just didn't go down in the first half as the Gauchos held a 34-30 intermission lead. Duda Sanadze (14 points) and Dennis Kramer (8 points, 6 rebounds) helped keep the Toreros close.
In the second half the Toreros held a one point lead on three different occasions, the last coming at 47-46 on a Johnny Dee jumper with 9:39. After a Sam Beeler free throw knotted the score at 47-all, the Gauchos would go on a 16-1 run over the next 7:17 for a commanding 63-48 lead with 2:22 left. The closest the Toreros would get from their was the final 11-point difference in the game as freshman Brett Bailey buried a three just before the buzzer.
For the game USD out rebounded the Gauchos 36-28 with Kramer leading the way with his 11 caroms. Santa Barbara converted 17-of-25 free throws while USD struggled by making just 5-of-12 attempts. UCSB made 9-of-20 threes (45%) while USD converted just 8-of-26. UCSB was paced by guard Michael Bryson who scored a game-high 21 points, including 5-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc.
