inskrt.com
The AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season!
Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here.
UC Irvine Anteaters (17-6, 10-1 Big West) at UCSB Gauchos (13-8, 6-5 Big West)
Santa Barbara, California; Thursday, 10 p.m. EST
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Anteaters -4; over/under is 143
BOTTOM LINE: UCSB hosts the UC Irvine Anteaters after Josh Pierre-Louis scored 20 points in UCSB’s 70-59 victory over the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners.
The Gauchos are 7-4 on their home court. UCSB has a 6-5 record against teams above .500.
The Anteaters are 10-1 against Big West opponents. UC Irvine scores 76.1 points and has outscored opponents by 10.5 points per game.
UCSB makes 51.1% of its shots from the field this season, which is 11.4 percentage points higher than UC Irvine has allowed to its opponents (39.7%). UC Irvine has shot at a 47.4% rate from the field this season, 3.1 percentage points greater than the 44.3% shooting opponents of UCSB have averaged.
The Gauchos and Anteaters match up Thursday for the first time in Big West play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Ajay Mitchell is averaging 19.7 points and 4.1 assists for the Gauchos. Yohan Traore is averaging 13.9 points over the last 10 games for UCSB.
Devin Tillis is averaging 9.5 points and 6.2 rebounds for the Anteaters. Justin Hohn is averaging 12.9 points over the last 10 games for UC Irvine.
LAST 10 GAMES: Gauchos: 6-4, averaging 74.4 points, 33.3 rebounds, 13.2 assists, 5.0 steals and 2.8 blocks per game while shooting 50.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.1 points per game.
Anteaters: 9-1, averaging 72.7 points, 37.2 rebounds, 15.1 assists, 6.5 steals and 3.8 blocks per game while shooting 46.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.3 points.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.