UC-Santa Barbara (16-8, 8-5) at UC-Irvine (20-4, 10-2) – 11:00 PM ET (ESPNU)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day is one of the highlights of the UTR Calendar – this will be the first leg of the Gauch Eater Cup where the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos travel south to take on the UC-Irvine Anteaters. Irvine is coming off of a tough 18-point loss at home against UC-San Diego that knocked the Anteaters down into a first-place tie for the Big West conference lead. It was also a serious blow for their at-large NCAA Tournament hopes, but they will still be one of the favorites to win the Big West Tournament coming up in March. Bent Leuchten averages 16 points a game and 9.1 rebounds a game for the Anteaters.
UC-Santa Barbara got off to a rough start in conference play with losses against UC-San Diego and UC-Davis back in December, but since have gone a very respectable 8-3 in conference play. They are one game back of Northridge and UC-Riverside for 3rd place in the conference. Deuce Turner had 23 points off the bench to lead the Gauchos to a 76-72 win over Hawai’i in their previous game on Saturday.
