Thursday, March 5th, 10:00 p.m. (et).

FACTS & STATS: Site: Thunderdome (6,000) -- Santa Barbara, California. Television: None. Home Record: UCR 11-2, UCSB 8-4. Away Record: UCR 5-9, UCSB 3-10. Neutral Record: UCR 0-0, UCSB 2-0. Conference Record: UCR 7-7, UCSB 6-8. Series Record: UC Santa Barbara leads, 19-5.

GAME NOTES: The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos play the first of two home games to close out the regular season tonight as they entertain the UC Riverside Highlanders in a Big West Conference battle at the Thunderdome. UCSB slipped by UC Davis on Saturday with a 66-64 victory, marking the team's fifth win in the last six outings. The decision also moved the program to 6-8 in league action which, upon entering the week, had the Gauchos eighth in the conference standings ahead of only Cal Poly. As for the Highlanders, who are an even 7-7 in league action and fourth in the Big West coming into the week, they had a short two-game win streak snapped on Saturday when UC Irvine asserted a 78-72 overtime win in their meeting. Despite holding a 19-4 advantage in the all- time series coming into the 2008-09 season, the Gauchos saw a changed UC Riverside squad in the first meeting of the campaign when the Highlanders captured a 71-69 victory at home the first week of January.

Kyle Austin registered a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds, both of which were team highs, but he and the Highlanders could not keep up with UC Irvine in overtime at the Bren Events Center. Austin finished the night shooting 10-of-13 at the free-throw line and was responsible for four assists for the group, while Javon Borum tacked on 20 points and four assists of his own in the setback. Having played in only 20 of the team's 27 games, Austin should have plenty of gas left in the tank to finish strong for the group and continue to be a leader in the scoring department as he averages 17.2 ppg. In fact, Austin is the only player scoring in double figures for the Highlanders heading into the final week of the regular season, not to mention placing second on the squad with his 6.4 rpg as well. The team is putting up a mere 60.4 ppg, but has figured out a way to hold opponents to just 60.1 ppg at the same time.

Any time a team can force 22 turnovers and get 35 cracks at the free-throw line it is bound to pick up a win, but in the case of the Gauchos they barely made it into the win column with those accomplishments against UC Davis last weekend. James Nunnally generated a team-best 18 points and five rebounds off the bench for the home team, followed by Jaime Serna and Chris Devine with 13 and 11 points, respectively. In conference games, Devine has been leading the way with 17.2 ppg, accounting for a huge chunk of the program's 64.3 ppg over 14 events. Devine is getting the job done with 54.6 percent shooting from the floor and is also spending a great deal of time in the paint where he is cleaning up close to seven and a half rebounds per contest. Unfortunately, no one else on the team is scoring better than 8.1 ppg (James Powell) in Big West bouts and that has kept the team out of the win column more often than not.

For all the times the Highlanders have been kicked around by the member schools of the Big West, this is a chance for the program to return the favor.

Predicted Outcome

UC Riverside 67, UC Santa Barbara 62