GAME NOTES: In the second semifinal of the Great Alaska Shootout, the Mercer Bears take on the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos at the Alaska Airlines Center.

Mercer survived in overtime to claim a 77-70 win over Rice in the first round on Thursday, The victory came after a 75-62 setback on the road against Colorado State last Sunday, and was the first win away from home for the Bears, who are 3-2 overall.

UCSB absolutely crushed Washington State in the first round on Thursday, running away with a 71-43 victory. The Gauchos were not nearly as dominant in the first three games of the campaign, as the victory over the Cougars moved them to an even 2-2 overall.

These teams have never previously met, and the winner will advance to the championship game to face either Pacific or Colorado State, depending on the outcome of that semifinal matchup.

Darious Moten secured an offensive rebound and got his put back to fall, evening the score at 61-61 with 28 seconds to play for Mercer. Rice failed to knock down a shot before the buzzer sounded, forcing the extra session. The Bears were in complete control in the second half, never trailing, while knocking down 12-of-16 shots from the free-throw line. Ike Nwamu scored 21 points and Jibri Bryan added 20 in the triumph.

It was a nice bounce-back effort from Nwamu (16 ppg), who is the leading scorer for the Bears, but only tallied eight points on 3-of-11 shooting in the team's previous outing against Colorado State. Bryan (11.8 ppg) is the only other double-digit scorer on the roster, with T.J. Hallice (9.2 ppg, 6 rpg) a decent threat to score, but more vital for his team-leading efforts on the glass. Phillip Leonard (8.2 ppg, 5.2 apg) doesn't score a ton, but he has done a great job in getting the ball to open shooters. As a team, the Bears are scoring just under 70 points per game on 44.8 percent shooting.

UCSB put on quite the defensive show against Washington State, or at the very least contributed to the Cougars' shooting woes. The Gauchos only allowed WSU to make 3-of-33 shots from the floor in the first half and 22.8 percent from the field overall. Meanwhile, they made 47.5 percent of their own field goal tries, including an 8-of-17 effort from 3-point range.

Zalmico Harmon netted 17 points, draining three 3-pointers, to pace the effort. Alan Williams had 12 points to match 12 rebounds, despite a shaky shooting night (4-of-13). John Green made valuable contributions off the bench, with 11 points in only 12 minutes. All in all, the Gauchos stuck to the blueprint they have followed early on, as Williams was averaging 21 ppg, 12.3 rpg, 3 apg and 2.3 bpg, doing just about everything, while Green averaged 13.3 points per game off the bench coming into this tournament.

While UCSB can't count on Mercer having the same type of shooting troubles as the Cougars, it can rely on Williams having a bounce-back game. As long as Green and the rest of the Gauchos follow suit, this one should go UCSB's way.