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UC Irvine Anteaters (17-6, 10-1 Big West) at UCSB Gauchos (13-8, 6-5 Big West)
Santa Barbara, California; Thursday, 10 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: UCSB faces the UC Irvine Anteaters after Josh Pierre-Louis scored 20 points in UCSB’s 70-59 victory over the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners.
The Gauchos have gone 7-4 at home. UCSB scores 77.8 points while outscoring opponents by 5.8 points per game.
The Anteaters are 10-1 in conference games. UC Irvine is 1-2 in games decided by less than 4 points.
UCSB’s average of 6.2 made 3-pointers per game this season is just 0.5 more made shots on average than the 5.7 per game UC Irvine allows. UC Irvine has shot at a 47.4% rate from the field this season, 3.1 percentage points above the 44.3% shooting opponents of UCSB have averaged.
The Gauchos and Anteaters face off Thursday for the first time in Big West play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Ajay Mitchell is scoring 19.7 points per game and averaging 4.0 rebounds for the Gauchos. Cole Anderson is averaging 2.8 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for UCSB.
Justin Hohn is shooting 45.9% and averaging 13.3 points for the Anteaters. Andre Henry is averaging 10.2 points over the last 10 games for UC Irvine.
LAST 10 GAMES: Gauchos: 6-4, averaging 74.4 points, 33.3 rebounds, 13.2 assists, 5.0 steals and 2.8 blocks per game while shooting 50.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.1 points per game.
Anteaters: 9-1, averaging 72.7 points, 37.2 rebounds, 15.1 assists, 6.5 steals and 3.8 blocks per game while shooting 46.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.3 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.