Report By Long Beach State Sports Information Department
We talk about it every October, and every March we are proved correct: the Big West is crazy. It’s always close. It’s always fun. And it takes parity to an all-new level.
On Saturday evening, UC Santa Barbara guard James Nunnally hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the 76-75 win over Long Beach. The 49ers have lost eight conference games this season by four points or less, four times by a single point.
Stephan Gilling led Long Beach State with 23 points on 6-of-11 shooting from three with 5-of-5 shooting from the line. T.J. Robinson added 16 points on 7-of-7 shooting, but was just 2-of-5 from the free throw line. Donovan Morris played 22 minutes and had 17 points by attacking the basket and going 6-for-8 from the line.
However, coach Dan Monson pointed to poor free throw shooting and rebounding as key contributors in the 49er loss.
“We told them all year that free throw shooting is something that wins or loses it,” Monson said of LBSU’s 11 missed free throws. “We lost the championship probably at the line, rebounding the ball and with some mistakes. But it’s a young group and a new season starts next week.”
Next week is the Big West Tournament, and with the loss, Long Beach State (10-6) finishes the season one game back of Cal State Northridge and gets the number-two seed. Long Beach State will play the late game next Friday night in the semifinals of the Big West Tournament with tipoff at approximately 8:00pm.
Early on, it was UC Santa Barbara jumped out to a 15-8 lead in the first nine and a half minutes, but The Beach came charging back with a 21-5 run to take a 29-20 lead with five minutes to play. Gilling sparked the run scoring 12 if his 15 first half points in the run.
The Gauchos rallied with a run of their own, outscoring Long Beach State 9-2 to cut the lead to two with 35 seconds left but Morris canned a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the 49ers into the locker room with a five-point lead, 36-31.
The Beach made 12-of-24 (50 percent) shots in the first half, while knocking down 5-of-12 (41.7 percent) threes. Gilling was 4-of-7 from beyond the arc in the first half. Robinson added eight points making all four of his shots, while Arturas Lazdauskas chipped in four points, four rebounds, 3 assists and two steals in the first half. Jesse Byrd led UCSB with 10 first half points.
UC Santa Barbara stayed in the game by grabbing six offensive rebounds and out-boarding the 49ers 18-12. UCSB made 45.8 percent of their shots before the break. LBSU turned it over 10 times, while forcing 13 Gaucho turnovers with seven of them coming on steals.
Santa Barbara came out in the second half and went on a 9-2 run to take a 40-38 lead. Long Beach State came right back with an 11-4 run to take the lead back and push it to 49-44. It could have been bigger, but The Beach made just two of its first seven free throws.
UCSB climbed back within three at 52-49 before Morris hit a 3-pointer to push it back to six. LBSU would eventually extend the lead to eight at 57-49 on a pair of free throws from Gilling, but UCSB scrambled back getting it to one with 5:20 to play.
Long Beach State pushed the lead back to six with a basket by Robinson and a 3-pointer by Gilling, his sixth of the game, but Nunnally answered with a three of his own to make it 67-64 with 3:53 to play.
Morris added a couple of free throws with 3:30 to play to push the lead back to five, 69-64, before UCSB got a steal and a dunk to cut it to 69-66. Another turnover led to a Jaime Serna free throw and a two-point game.
Nunnally hit a pair of free throws with 1:20 to play to tie it at 69, but Morris answered with a baseline jumper to put LBSU up two and the Casper Ware added a free throw for a 3-point lead that Byrd cut to two with 20 second to play. Morris added one of two free throws to make it a 2-point game and UCSB answered with a basket to tie it but then Will Brew intentionally fouled Robinson after losing track of the score with 6.8 seconds to play to set up the final second excitement.