UC Santa Barbara 60, Pacific 53

2/21/2008 12:34 AM

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) -Alex Harris scored a game-high 17 points to lead UC Santa Barbara to a 60-53 victory over Pacific on Wednesday night.

Harris scored twice on driving layups to give Santa Barbara its biggest lead at 19 points early in the second half and the Gauchos cruised to the finish. Santa Barbara's lead never fell below 13 points again until the game's final minute.

Santa Barbara (20-6, 9-4 Big West) forced 18 turnovers and limited Pacific (17-9, 8-5) to 42 percent shooting from the field to hold the Tigers to their lowest scoring total of the season. The Gauchos avenged a 71-58 home defeat to Pacific last month - Santa Barbara's worst league loss of the season.

James Powell scored 13 points for Santa Barbara, which moved into sole possession of third place in the Big West.

Chad Troyer scored 13 points and Anthony Brown had 13 points and eight rebounds for Pacific, which lost its third consecutive game. Bryan LeDuc had a game-high 10 rebounds off the bench for the Tigers, who made just 9 of 19 free throws.

The lead changed hands six times in the game's first eight minutes before Santa Barbara took command with a 13-0 run midway through the first half.

The Gauchos forced 10 turnovers and limited Pacific to 30 percent shooting from the field in the first half on their way to a 30-17 halftime advantage.

Pacific was just 7 of 23 from the field and 2 of 7 from the free throw line during the first half.

Santa Barbara then began the second half with an 8-2 spurt to turn the game into a rout.