Donovan Morris did everything he could to prevent the UC Santa Barbara men’s basketball team from winning the regular season Big West title until he was forced to leave the floor – literally.
However, the Big West scoring champion’s career-high 33 points weren’t enough, as the Gauchos edged Long Beach State, 70-68, in a wild overtime finish Saturday in the homecoming game at The Walter Pyramid.
UCSB (23-7 overall, 12-4 Big West) will enter the Big West Tournament in Anaheim with the No. 1 seed and an automatic bye into the semifinals. The team won’t play until Friday at 6 p.m. at the Anaheim Convention Center.
LBSU (6-24 overall, 3-13 Big West) will enter as the No. 8seed and face No. 5 UC Irvine Wednesday at 6 p.m.
“I feel for my guys because I thought we played as good as we played all year,” head coach Dan Monson said. “But, Santa Barbara won the league for a reason and made more plays at the end.”
Morris started the comeback charge by drawing a foul on bank shot from 3-point range and hit the free throw to convert a four-point play to cut the UCSB lead to three points with 1:06 left to play.
With the 49ers trailing 64-61, Morris double-pumped and drained a 3-pointer he released on his way down to the floor with 7.7 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game, force an overtime and bring the screaming crowd of 2,958 to their feet.
“To be honest, that one felt better than the banked one I hit,” said Morris, who shot 9-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. “I knew that one was going in.”
The junior guard then opened the extra session as the distributor, feeding a pair of assists to junior forward Cornel Williams at the basket to give the 49ers a 68-66 lead with 3:28 to play.
“I told [the team before overtime], ‘You need to start slipping [to the basket] because you’re going to be open,'” said Morris, who also added team-highs of seven rebounds and five assists.
Already saddled with four fouls, Morris then drove to the basket on a broken play but was whistled for an offensive foul with 2:40 remaining. LBSU had to finish the rest of the game without its leader.
“I told Donovan on Friday, unless he gets more aggressive we can’t win,” Monson said about Morris, who rebounded from a 1-of-12 shooting performance in the team’s previous game. “I said, ‘Even if it’s a charge, you’ve got to be more aggressive than that and you need to foul out trying.’ And unfortunately that’s what he did. But I don’t think we would’ve got in the position we were if we wouldn’t have been so aggressive, and I was really proud of him.”
Tied at 68, Williams again was found close to the basket, but Gauchos forward Chris Devine came out of nowhere to block the shot out of bounds with 2.6 seconds left to play.
It was unclear as to how many seconds should be placed on the shot clock, however, and on the ensuing 49ers inbounds play the shot clock read zero. 49er guard Greg Plater then caught the inbounds pass and was whistled for a shot clock violation with 1.8 seconds left.
The Gauchos then heaved a pass three-quarters down the court, which Devine then caught and used to fire a desperation attempt. He was fouled by Maurice Clady with 0.3 seconds left.
Devine missed the first free throw and LBSU called a timeout. But, the 49ers didn’t have any timeouts remaining and were called for a technical foul.
“We obviously made crucial mistakes in the last three seconds,” said Monson, “fouling and then calling a timeout we didn’t have.
UCSB guard Alex Harris, who finished with a team-high 21 points, then sank 1-of-2 from the line and Devine hit his second attempt to give the Gauchos a 70-68 lead. Plater’s heave clanged off the backboard, and UCSB escaped with the the regular season conference title and handed the 49ers their seventh consecutive loss.
Entering the game averaging 20.6 points per game, Morris edged Harris (20.3) for the Big West scoring title.
LBSU’s defense forced nine first-half turnovers, which the team converted into 11 points, to help give the 49ers a 29-25 lead at the half.
Trailing 23-15, the 49ers sparked an 11-0 run capped by a steal by Clady, who guided an outlet pass to Williams, who was fouled and sank two free throws with 1:46 left in the half.
Morris led the 49ers with 14 points in the first half while Harris paced the Gauchos with nine points.
