It’s Santa Barbara Big Over Irvine

UC Irvine traveled 1 1/2 hours south to UC Santa Barbara and brought a five-game winning streak into the Thunderdome. But the Anteaters left their game in San Luis Obispo.

Irvine’s high-scoring offense was completely throttled by the rejuvenated Gauchos, who held the Anteaters to season lows in points and shooting in a 62-45 Big West Conference victory in front of 1,161 Thursday night.

Irvine, 6-3 and 1-1 in the Big West, was averaging 78.5 points after its 85-75 win over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Tuesday. But the Anteaters shot 32.6% from the field Thursday and trailed, 34-19, at halftime. They got no closer than eight the rest of the way as Santa Barbara (4-5, 2-0) got 14 offensive rebounds.

“We just didn’t come out in the first half with the type of effort we needed to battle with,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said.

The Gauchos’ Josh Davis and Michael Chambers hounded Irvine’s Ross Schraeder all night and held the Anteaters’ leading scorer to eight points, more than eight under his average.

“We wanted to make him get shots off the dribble,” Davis said. “He got a few early and we came back and made a couple of changes as far as fighting over the screen.”

Chrismen Oliver had 12 points, Casey Cook had 11 and Cameron Goettsche had 14 rebounds but needed six stitches over his right eye in the second half after taking a spill in a fight for a rebound.

“We held serve,” Santa Barbara Coach Bob Williams said. “When you’re in league, you have to win at home if you’re going to be a factor at all.”

Santa Barbara got bad news when it learned junior guard Cecil Brown is expected to sit out the rest of the season because of a stress fracture in his left ankle.