RIVERSIDE, Calif.  - The history book just will not close on this year's UC Riverside men's basketball team. 

Three days after cementing the first season sweep of Long Beach State since 2008-09, the Highlanders pulled to within 1.5 games of first in the Big West with Saturday night's 74-63 win over UC Santa Barbara at the SRC Arena. 

The win gave head coach Mike Magpayo's ball club 18 wins for the first time in the program's Division I era and yet another program first: a season sweep of the Gauchos. 

"I'm proud of the toughness and grit our team showed this week with two tough opponents and to stay the course," Magpayo said. "We got better this week without question. The guys are continuing to raise the bar. I never doubt this group because they have always risen to a challenge and they do so with an A+ work ethic and attitude." 

UC Riverside endured a slow, albeit brief offensive lull out of the opening gate, but Flynn Cameron gave UCR its first lead of the night just out of the game's first media break. Cameron, who went for nine points and a career-high nine assists the last time these two juggernauts met, picked up the pace with back-to-back threes as UCR jumped out to a 12-5 advantage. 

Zyon Pullin notched 14 points on the night, but his seven assists moved him past Reggie Howard for second on UC Riverside's career list. Pullin also flirted with a triple double, adding six rebounds into the mix. 

UCR and the Gauchos picked up a seesaw pace out of the intermission, with a lead never eclipsing three for a good 10 minutes. The battle, though, was to be found down low with both teams' percentage of points in the paint being well above 50 just midway through the second half. 

Lachlan Olbrich continued his resurgence with another double-digit scoring output against Santa Barbara, as the Aussie went 11-for-16 from the floor with 23 points, picking up his second 20-point game in his last three outings.

Cameron joined Olbrich in double figures as well with 21, as the duo from Down Under combined for 44 of UCR's 74 points. Cameron had three impactful triples on the night, going back-to-back before hitting from downtown to silence a second half Santa Barbara comeback effort. Cameron surpassed Dragan Elkaz and moved into a tie for sixth with Rickey Porter on UCR's Division I single-season list.

UCR shot 52.7 percent from the floor - its second highest field goal percentage of the season - while draining a season-high 40 field goals. 

UC Riverside gets a two-day rest before traveling to CSUN for a 7:00 p.m. matchup from Northridge on ESPN+.