Dec. 1, 2010

Box Score

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Getting his first start since Jan. 16, LMU senior Larry Davis tied his career-high with 27 points for the short-handed Lions. It wasn't enough down the stretch as UC Santa Barbara junior James Nunnally netted a career-high 29 points, 13 of which came in a key 18-0 run, to lead the Gauchos to a 77-67 win at the Thunderdome Wednesday night.

Coming into the game, the Lions' game-high as a team was four three-pointers in the season opener. Davis exploded for six, hitting them on seven attempts. He added 5-of-7 from the charity stripe and finished hitting 8-for-13 from the field on the game.

Vernon Teel added 13 and Anthony Ireland 10 as the Lions (3-5) were without four scholarship players, including leading scorer Drew Viney (calf) and three-year starter Jarred DuBois (foot).

Nunnally finished the game 11-for-14 from the field, hitting 4-for-5 from long range to lead the Gauchos (3-3) in only their second home game of the season. Leading scorer Orlando Johnson finished with 11, 13 below his season average.

"I thought we really competed well tonight," said Head Coach Max Good. "We had enough here tonight to win that game. We just didn't guard the three well again tonight."

The game was back-and-forth early as the Lions took a 16-15 lead with 11:27 to play on the first three-pointer of the night by Davis.

However, the Gauchos went on a 12-0 run and held the Lions scoreless for just over four minutes and took a 27-16 lead on a three-pointer by Johnson with 7:19 to play. Tim Diederichs would break the run and the Lions would claw back, cutting the lead to three, 28-25, on a lay-in by Godwin Okonji with 4:31 to play.

UCSB got the lead back to seven before Davis outscored the Gauchos 5-2 in the final minutes, including his third three of the half, to make it 36-32 at the break. Davis finished with 14 in the half.

He picked up where he left off right from the start of the second half, hitting a three on his first attempt to cut the lead to one, 36-35.

UCSB would work the lead back to double-digits, 48-38, with 13:08 to play.

LMU, and Davis, would not go away. Davis' jumper cut the lead to a pair, 50-48, and then Teel's lay-in off of Anthony Ireland's steal cut the lead to one, 53-52, with 9:59 to play.

From there, Nunnally took over to lead an 18-0 run. He would score 13 of the first 16 points in the run, assisting on the other three points as the Gauchos would take a 71-52 lead with 5:01 to play.

"A crucial point was after we cut the lead to one, 53-52. We botched a couple defensive assignments, didn't get a hand up on the three-point shooters and they hit them at the opportune time for them, and inopportune time for us," said Good. "We talked about the two-headed monster of Johnson and Nunnally. We did a good job on Johnson, but wouldn't you know Nunnally goes off for a career high."

Davis would fittingly end the run with two free throws and his sixth three-pointer.

UCSB finished the game hitting 29-for-47 from the field (61.7 percent) and 7-for-15 from long range (46.7 percent) while the Lions were 24-for-55 (43.6 percent) overall and 7-for-18 (38.9 percent) from the three.

The Lions conclude a six-game, three-week road trip and finally return home to Gersten Pavilion for a rematch with Cal Poly on Saturday, Dec. 4 with start time set for 7 p.m. The Hannon Field Tailgate Party is back and starts at 5 p.m. For more visit GameDay Central on LMULions.com.