UC Santa Barbara Ousts Long Beach, 55-49

Nothing this season has been easy for Long Beach State or UC Santa Barbara. Long Beach needed a furious surge at the end of the regular season just to make the Big West Conference tournament, while Santa Barbara had trouble fielding a legitimate roster throughout the season.

So why would Wednesday’s first-round game between the teams be any different at the Anaheim Convention Center? Both teams did their best to give it away before Santa Barbara pulled away late for a 55-49 victory.

Santa Barbara (11-17) advanced to tonight’s quarterfinals against Cal State Fullerton.

“That just shows how resilient we are as a team,” said Gaucho guard Chrismen Oliver, who had 13 points. “We’ve been down. We’ve had injuries, but we never quit this season.”

Even in winning seven of its final eight games to clinch a berth, Long Beach (10-20) seemingly won each by the slimmest of margins. For a brief moment, it appeared that the 49ers were going to use that momentum to charge into the quarterfinals.

Jibril Hodges and Chris Jenkins made consecutive three-point shots midway through the second half to give them a 43-31 lead.

But Joe See, who had a game-high 19 points, sparked an 11-0 run with two three-point baskets and a reverse layup.

“We were up by 12 points and we fell apart,” Hodges said.

See, a streak-shooting junior guard, would provide the decisive points in the game’s key moments. He made three free throws after being fouled to tie the score at 45-45 and made another three-pointer to give the Gauchos a 50-46 lead with 4:06 remaining.