CEDAR CITY, Utah – Matt Freeman’s floating jump shot from deep in the left corner nearly capped a furious comeback, but in the end, UC Santa Barbara men’s basketball dropped a heartbreaker at Southern Utah on Saturday afternoon, 62-61.
The Gauchos (6-4) had their five-game winning streak ended by the Thunderbirds (6-4), but they didn’t go down without a fight.
The final two minutes of the game were frenzied ones. With 1:48 to play and UCSB trailing 58-56, Devearl Ramsey was fouled while going to the basket. He made both free throws to tie the game at 58-58.
On the other end, Cameron Oluyitan had his shot blocked by Amadou Sow and Freeman came down with the rebound. The Gauchos got the ball to Ramsey who drove into the paint, taking the it to the rim where his shot was blocked by Dwayne Morgan. But even with the block, Ramsey came down with possesion. After a couple quick passes, Sow ended up with the ball, but he was double-teamed and Morgan stripped it away from him, giving SUU an opportunity to break the tie.
John Knight III went strong on the right baseline where he muscled his way in and was fouled while making a layup. Knight hit the free throw to give the Thunderbirds a 61-58 lead with 52 seconds to play.
Following a missed layup by Sow at the 38 second mark, UCSB forced SUU into a shot clock violation, getting the ball back with 00:07 on the clock. With five second left, Ramsey was intentionally fouled. He made 1-of-2 free throws, missing the second. David Ndiaye collected the rebound and was fouled by Sow with 4.4 seconds to play. It was Sow’s fifth foul.
Ndiaye made the first free throw to extend his team’s lead to 62-59, but missed the second and it was rebounded by Jay Nagle, who got the ball to Ramsey who was fouled. With just over three seconds to play, Ramsey calmly made both free throws to cut the gap to 62-61.
UCSB subbed Robinson Idehen in for Nagle and immediately assigned the 6-foot-10 forward to the inbounds passer. With no timeouts, Idehen provided a major barrier, forcing the Thunderbirds into a five second violation and turning the ball back over to the Gauchos, setting the stage for the final shot by Freeman.
“This was a tough loss,” said UCSB head coach Joe Pasternack. “This is a tough place to play, but we battled and hopefully we’ll take something from it.”
The game was close the entire way. There were nine lead changes and 11 ties. SUU’s biggest lead was eight points while Santa Barbara’s was four.
Both teams struggled from the perimeter with the Gauchos making just 3-of-15 three-point attempts and SUU hitting just 3-for-13.
“We’re just not shooting the ball well right now,” Pasternack said. “It’s hard enough to win on the road, but when you only turn it over 10 times and outrebound your opponent 34-26, you should be able to.”
UCSB was led by JaQuori McLaughlin who scored a team-high 14 points and made two of the team’s three 3-point baskets. He also added four rebounds. Ramsey was 4-for-8 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free throw line to finish with a season-high 13 points, all in the second half. He also added six rebounds. Sow scored just six points but added a team-high seven rebounds and three blocked shots. The team’s leading scorer entering the game was limited to 21:37 because of foul trouble.
Nagle hit the Gauchos’ other three-pointer and finished with season-highs of nine points and five rebounds. Sékou Touré added seven points and four boards.
While it had its issues shooting from outside the three-point arc, UCSB was 20-of-51 overall, 39.2%, including 17-for-36 from inside the arc.
SUU shot 45.8% overall. The Thunderbirds were paced by Knight who had 19 points. Maizen Fausett had 11 points and Harrison Butler added 10 to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Gauchos will remain in the Mountain Time Zone for a few more days and will play at Idaho State on Monday, Dec. 16. The game in Pocatello will tip-off at 6:00 p.m. (PST).