Ajay Mitchell Scores 30 Points to Lead UCSB Men’s Basketball Win over Northern Arizona

It was a down night for the UCSB men’s basketball team in terms of shooting efficiency, and Northern Arizona came into the Thunderdome with confidence after beating the Gauchos last year at home, but none of that mattered with Ajay Mitchell on the court.

Mitchell scored 30 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 11-of-12 shooting from the free-throw line as UCSB cruised to a 70-59 victory over the visiting Lumberjacks on Wednesday night.

“I’m just being aggressive and letting the game come to me. If I have to score, I’ll score. If someone is open, I got to find him,” Mitchell said. “Obviously, I’ve grown up; it’s junior year, so now it’s time for me to be more of a leader, and sometimes I have to show it on the court, but also off the court.”

Josh Pierre-Louis supplemented Mitchell’s scoring with his high-energy style of play on both ends of the court. He finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds from his guard position.

“He’s the best athlete maybe in the country. For a guard to get 10 rebounds…. That’s a pro,” said UCSB coach Joe Pasternack. “We need him to do that every night.”

Defense has been a point of emphasis for UCSB, and the extra focus has paid off in the past couple of games. The Gauchos held Northern Arizona to 38.6 percent shooting overall for the game and won the rebound battle 41-26.

The game was close early as a dunk by Yohan Traore tied the score at 20 apiece with 8:13 remaining in the first half. However, an 11-2 run by UCSB capped off by a Matija Belic three-pointer gave UCSB a 31-22 lead and broke the game open for good.

UCSB led 41-33 at halftime and increased its lead to 46-33 with a layup in traffic by Mitchell with 17:27 remaining in the second half.

The Lumberjacks cut their deficit to eight with 14:00 minutes remaining in the second half with a three-pointer by Liam Lloyd, but that’s as close as they would get for the remainder of the game.

A layup by Pierre-Louis with 2:19 remaining increased the UCSB lead to 70-57 with 2:19 left in the game.

The Gauchos (4-2 overall) improved to 4-0 since Mitchell returned from an early season injury and appear to be hitting their stride with five games remaining before conference play begins.

“We have such a long way to go. There are so many warts on our team right now defensively,” Pasternack said. “If we don’t improve every single day, we’re not going to get where we have to be by conference.”