49ers Defeat Gauchos, 63-62
Louis Darby's Three-Pointer at the Buzzer Lifts The Beach
January 3, 2004
LONG BEACH, CA--Long Beach State's Louis Darby banked a long three-pointer off the backboard with 0.1 second remaining to lift the Long Beach State men's basketball team (1-0 Big West, 3-7) to a 63-62 victory over the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (0-1 Big West, 6-4). Darby's buzzer-beater was his only shot from the three-point line for the night as he finished with a career-best 17 points.
Long Beach State held the Gauchos scoreless for nearly nine and a half minutes as they went on an 18-0 run to tie the game at 58. Two made free throws by UCSB's Cameron Goettsche with 1:12 remaining broke Santa Barbara's scoring draught and pushed their lead to 60-58. Kevin Roberts drained a two-pointer with 0:49 seconds remaining to tie the game at 60-60, but a lay-up by Jacoby Atako pushed UCSB's lead back to 62-60. The 49ers in-bounded the ball, nearly turned it over before a one-handed lob by Darby towards the basket, banking off the backboard and into the net, sealing the victory for The Beach.
"UCSB is very good offensively, so we tried a 1-3-1 defense which has a tendency to slow team's down. We tried to get them frustrated tonight and it worked." said 49er Head Coach Larry Reynolds.
Roberts led the 49ers with 18 points, followed by Darby with 17, and Antoine Jackson with 10. Roberts and Marcel Jackson led the 49ers with five rebounds a piece. The Beach shot 52% from the field, .600 (15-25) in the second half, and committed only 14 turnovers, compared to UCSB's 21.
UCSB was led by Casey Cook with 15 points, and Branduinn Fullove with 10. Bryan Whitehead led the Gauchos with six rebounds. Santa Barbara shot 43% from the field, were 7-16 (.438) from 3-point range, and out-rebounded the 49ers 40-to-22.
Trailing 36-26 at the half, the 49ers scored the first bucket of the second half, only to see the Gauchos his its first six shots, including 3-for-3 from the three-point line, to lead 51-31 with 15:45 left to play. With the lead at 54-34 at the 14:08 mark, the 49ers then began its run to get back into the game.
"We just reminded them to play hard and chip away at the lead, but the main thing was just to remember to play hard," added Reynolds.
UC Santa Barbara went into the halftime break up 36-26 with their largest lead of the game. Long Beach was able to cut the deficit to 31-26 with 1:14 remaining after a driving layup by Kevin Houston, but Santa Barbara used a 4-0 run to push their lead to 10. The Gauchos shot 50% from the field, while the 49ers shot 44%. UCSB out-rebounded LBSU 19-to-11 in the first half. Roberts led the 49ers with nine first-half points.
The men's basketball team will take on Cal Poly on Monday, January 5 at 7:35 pm in The Pyramid.
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