NCAA Basketball Betting – Gauchos vs Huskies
The Washington Huskies will look to rebound off a difficult loss to No. 5 Duke when the host the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos who received a confidence boost with a close win over the San Diego Toreros, earlier in the week.
Date/Time: 10:00 PM ET, Friday, December 16, 2011
Venue: Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, Seattle, Washington
Broadcast: ROOT
Spread: OFF
Over/Under: OFF
The Gauchos set a season high for turnovers in a game that, although, expected to win, was probably much closer than it should have been as they eked out a 65-61 win.
Santa Barbara outshot San Diego in a big way while beating them on the boards.
The Gauchos, stifled the Toreros shooting 52 percent for the game while playing good defense especially on the defensive end of rebounding. UC-Santa Barbara hit the glass harder than San Diego, 26 defensive rebounds to 17, and that eventually led to more possessions.
Jaime Serna led all scorers against the Toreros with 22 points on a whipping 75 percent shooting effort and led everyone with five blocked shots. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
The win moves UC-Santa Barbara to 5-2 as they seem to be rolling through the early part of the season.
Meanwhile, Tony Wroten led Washington with 23 points while C.J. Wilcox added 22 but could not chase down the Blue Devils, eventually falling 86-80 at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday.
The Huskies, which trailed by 17 points midway through the second half, rallied to within 78-72on Abdul Gaddy’s layup with 59 seconds left, but could get no closer.
Duke used a 17-5 run midway through the first half to build a 30-13 lead and Washington played catch up for the remainder of the game.
The Huskies entered the day sixth in the nation in rebounding, but were outrebounded 39-32. Washington lost leading rebounder Aziz N’Diaye to a sprained knee early in the second half and it is unlikely he will be ready to play against Santa Barbara on Friday.
That could give the Gauchos a much needed leg up on the boards that could be just enough to pull off the win in this one.
Free Pick: UC Santa Barbara ATS
