Gauchos stop Matadors

Alex Harris capped his Big West Conference scoring championship with 25 points to lead UC Santa Barbara to a 75-59 victory over Cal State Northridge on Saturday at Santa Barbara in the regular-season finale for both teams.

The Gauchos (18-10, 9-5 Big West Conference) finished in a three-way tie for second place but will go into the conference tournament in Anaheim seeded No. 4.

The Matadors (14-16, 5-9) fell behind by 18 points before cutting the deficit to 59-51 behind Calvin Chitwood’s 21 points.

But Harris, who is averaging 21 points, ended Northridge’s run with a three-point basket. He scored nine points in the final 5 minutes 46 seconds.

Long Beach State 91, UC Riverside 75 -- The 49ers (22-7, 12-2 Big West), who already had clinched first place in the conference, won easily at Riverside. The Highlanders (7-23, 1-13) finished in eighth place.

Long Beach broke the game open midway through the second half, pushing its advantage to 70-56 at 9:36 after a tip-in by Louis Darby.

Riverside made it 73-65 with 6:31 left, but the 49ers went on a 16-3 run to extend their lead to 89-68.

UC Davis 77, Cal State Fullerton 68 -- Senior Thomas Juillerat had a career-high 28 points and 10 rebounds to lift the Aggies (5-23) over the Titans (19-9) in the nonconference game at Davis.

Vince Oliver scored 20 of his 28 points in the second half for the Aggies, who ended an 11-game losing streak.

Justin Burns and Bobby Brown had 15 points each for the Titans, who failed to get their fifth consecutive 20-game season.

The Titans cut the Aggies’ lead to four points, but four free throws each by Juillerat and Rommel Marentez and two by Ari Wamerdam in the last 1:12 clinched the victory.