Photo by Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos (3-1) at UC Irvine Anteaters (2-4)
College Basketball: Sunday, December 27, 2020 at 7:00 pm (Bren Events Center)
The Line: UC Irvine Anteaters +2 -- Over/Under: 136 Click to Get Latest Betting Odds
TV: ESPN3 Stream College Basketball all season on ESPN+. Sign up now! 
The UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos and the UC-Irvine Anteaters meet in college basketball action from Bren Events Center on Sunday.
The UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos will look to build on a 75-63 win over Pepperdine last time out. Jaquori McLaughlin led the Gauchos with 23 points on 7 of 11 shooting with a team-high 8 assists while Ajare Sanni chipped in 16 points with 5 threes and a pair of steals. Deveari Ramsey added 15 points on 4 of 8 shooting with 3 threes to finish off the trio of double-digit scorers for UCSB in the win. Amadou Sow added 9 points with 12 rebounds while Josh Pierre-Louis added 4 assists and a pair of steals on the year. McLaughlin leads the Gauchos in scoring and assists with 18 points and 6 assists per game while Miles Norris leads the Gauchos in rebounding with 6.2 rebounds per game this season. As a team, UC-Santa Barbara is averaging 87 points on 54.2% shooting from the field, 40.4% from 3-point range and 67.7% from the foul line while allowing opposing teams to average 61.8 points on 38.4% shooting from the field and 29.7% from 3-point range this season.
The UC-Irvine Anteaters will look to add to their 85-53 win over San Diego to try to get back to .500 after improving to 3-4 with the W. Collin Welp led the Anteaters with 16 points on 7 of 12 shooting with 8 rebounds and a pair of steals while Isaiah Lee added 11 points on 4 of 5 shooting with 3 threes and a team-high 6 assists. Dawson Baker added 10 points to finish off the trio of double-digit scorers for UC-Irvine in the victory. Brad Greene added 8 points with a team-high 9 rebounds as well in the winning effort. Baker leads UC-Irvine in scoring with an average of 12.1 points per game while Welp leads the Anteaters in rebounding with 6.9 rebounds per game and Lee leads UC-Irvine in assists with 3.3 assists per game this season. As a team, UC-Irvine is averaging 79.7 points on 48.4% shooting from the field, 34.2% from 3-point range and 72.6% from the foul line while allowing opposing teams to average 66.7 points on 40.3% shooting from the field and 33.9% from 3-point range this season.
UC-Santa Barbara is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 Sunday games and 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 5-2-1 in their last 8 games overall. UC-Irvine is 16-6-2 ATS in their last 24 home games and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 Sunday games while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. The favorite is 5-2 ATS in the last 7 meetings between these two teams.
This line has flip-flopped after opening with the Anteaters favored, but I think there’s some logic behind it. UCSB is just the team in much better form right now while UC-Irvine just can’t really get their footing right now and I just think that the Gauchos are more likely to keep their offensive pace going so I’ll lay the bucket with the Gauchos in this spot.
Chris’s Pick UC-Santa Barbara -2
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
