An increased defensive focus paid dividends for the UC Santa Barbara men’s basketball team, as the Gauchos snapped a three-game losing streak with a 77-62 victory over Hawaiʻi on Saturday night at the Thunderdome.
Aidan Mahaney led the way offensively with 17 points, and four other Gauchos reached double figures in scoring, including Hosana Kitenge, who shot a perfect 6-for-6 from the field. However, it was the team’s dramatic transformation on the defensive end that shaped the flow of the game.
“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday we went really hard in practice, and we got better at defense,” UCSB head coach Joe Pasternak said. “We are far from perfect. We have a major problem that I just talked to our team about, which is that we don’t understand how to play for 40 minutes.”