Boxscore – PDF
 
Santa Barbara, CA – A hot-shooting first half led UC Santa Barbara to an 81-70 non-conference win over Portland State at the Thunderdome.
 
Portland State's two-game road winning streak came to an end as the Vikings played well after the opening moments but simply couldn't catch up.
 
UC Santa Barbara raced to a 14-2 lead at the game's outset. Portland State found itself playing uphill all night after that. The Vikings were able to keep it close, hitting six first-half three-point field goals. They were within in three at 34-31 with 3:41 left in the half. But UCSB closed it out with a 13-4 run to lead 47-35 at halftime.
 
The Gauchos hit 20-30 shots in the half (.667) to 13-33 for the Vikings (.394).
 
Santa Barbara's biggest lead was 58-44 with 10:59 to play but PSU wouldn't go away. The Vikings cut the deficit to five on two occasions in the final four minutes.
 
A Holland Woods jumper closed the gap to 70-65 with 3:01 left. However, the Gauchos scored nine of the next 10 points to pull away, with Jaquori McLaughlin scoring five.
 
For the game, McLaughlin led the Gauchos with 21 points and six assists.
 
UCSB shot 31-59 from the field (.525) and out-rebounded the Vikings, 38-32. In addition, the Gauchos had only nine turnovers and a 44-20 scoring advantage in the paint.
 
Once again, Portland State was undermanned and undersized. The Vikings were without starting forward Alonzo Walker, who sat out with a heel injury suffered on Tuesday in the win over Grambling State. Center Sal Nuhu missed his third straight game due to an ankle sprain.
 
"We were really small and undermanned around the basket, but I thought our guys fought really hard," said Viking Coach Barret Peery. "We had a couple opportunities late in the game to get it really close but we weren't able to punch through."
 
Woods continued his fine play with a game-high 22 points and five assists. He made 8-13 shots, 3-5 from three-point range and 3-4 at the line.
 
Chris Whitaker scored 14 for the Vikings and Matt Hauser had 13 points.
 
Rashaad Goolsby had his third straight game of 10 rebounds and now has four on the season.
 
PSU was 25-60 from the field (.417). After making six threes in the first half, they managed only one after halftime.
 
Portland State drops to 3-4 overall. The Gauchos improved to 3-3 with the win.
 
GAME NOTES: Freshman Trey Wood started his first career game in place of Walker… Ian Burke led the Vikings with seven points off the bench… PSU is 2-3 on the road this season… Portland State plays the fourth of four straight road games on Sunday at Oregon State. The Vikings and Beavers meet in a 3 p.m. game televised on the Pac-12 Network. "I was pleased with our team getting two of three on the road this week. Right now, we need to get home, get healthy, then go on the road again Sunday," said Peery.