UC Santa Barbara tops UC Davis 71-55 in Big West semifinal

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Amadou Sow scored a season-high 23 points as UC Santa Barbara defeated UC Davis 71-55 in the semifinals of the Big West Conference Tournament on Friday night.

The top-seeded Gauchos will face either UC Irvine or UC Riverside in Saturday's championship game.

Sow made 9 of 10 from the free throw line, was 7-for-12 shooting and added seven rebounds with two steals. JaQuori McLaughlin added 17 points for UC Santa Barbara (22-4). Ajare Sanni added 16 points.

McLaughlin scored the first four points as Santa Barbara never trailed, leading by 12 at the break and never seriously challenged in the second half. The Gauchos were 28 of 34 at the free throw line while the Aggies were 6 of 8.

Christian Anigwe had 15 points and eight rebounds for the Aggies (10-8). Elijah Pepper added 13 points. Damion Squire had seven rebounds.

___

For more AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/AP_Top25

___

Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com