Another heartbreaker to UCI
Mayhem broke out in the Spectrum on Thursday after the Utah State men’s basketball game, and no, it wasn’t in celebration.
UC Irvine guard Mike Hook sunk a pair of free throws with 1.3 seconds left to stop an Aggie comeback and give the Anteaters a 59-58 victory.
Seconds before, USU guard Ronnie Ross drained both his free throws to put Utah State up 58-57 with 2.6 seconds.
Then there were 3.9 seconds left. Following the free throws, USU called a time out to set its defense. UCI coaches asked the officials to check the time and the result was 1.3 seconds being added to the clock.
The time out allowed the officials to adjust the clock, but USU Head Coach Morrill said the time could have been checked anyway and he doesn’t regret his choice.
“They wanted to get their defense set and I would have done the same thing,” UCI Head Coach Pat Douglas said. “I think it was a wise thing to do.”
Ross said he didn’t know what would have happened if he would have missed the free throw and not given the officials the opportunity to add the time.
“If I would have missed the free throws, how would they have put time back on the clock? I don’t understand it,” Ross said. “They would have stopped us in the middle of the game and put time back.”
The extra time gave Irvine the chance to inbound the ball to Hood, who drew a blocking call against Ross at midcourt to earn the trip to the line.
“At that point we were just trying to make him catch it ahead of us and we made a mistake and fouled,” Morrill said. “That’s the last thing you want to do in that situation. He had time to maybe get one, two more dribbles and throw up a desperation shot.”
As the final buzzer sounded, fans, upset with the final call, began to rain objects on to the court. Plastic balls and wads of paper flew across the court, one ball hitting a referee as he was escorted off the court.
It was the second time this season Hood ripped a game away from Utah State (17-6, 8-4), as he hit an overtime shot Jan. 15 at UCI to give it a 75-73 victory
In the first half, the Aggies fell into a hole, shooting only 36 percent and scoring 22 points.
USU’s woes began with the score tied 10-10 at the 14:09 mark in the first half. Irvine then went on a 21-5 run lasting until 2:13 left in the half.
A small spurt to end the half pulled the Aggies within 11 at halftime, 33-22, but they still faced an uphill battle in the second half.
Midway through the second half, the deficit had not changed as USU trailed 48-37. But then forwards Toraino Johnson and Desmond Penigar got the Aggies going.
Johnson hit four free throws and a 3-pointer to pull the Aggies within four at 50-46.
Then it was Penigar’s turn.
Hitting a pair of baseline jumpers, a driving bank shot, a 14-foot jumper over the defense and converting an offensive rebound, Penigar scored the next 10 Aggie points. With 2:13 left the score was knotted at 56.
Penigar said not getting the win overshadowed his play, though.
“It really doesn’t mean that much,” he said. “I didn’t play that good in the first half. In the second half I turned it up a little bit because [center] Spencer [Nelson] was in foul trouble.”
The Anteaters (14-7, 8-4) edged out to a 57-56 lead on a free throw by forward Jordan Harris with 21.2 seconds remaining. On the next possession Ross went to the line.
“I was real proud of our guys in the second half,” Morrill said. “We didn’t give up, we kept fighting.
“We had two choices: To keep fighting or to give in and get beat by 20.”
For the game Penigar led all scorers with 21 points to go along with a game-high eight rebounds. Johnson was the only other Aggie in double digits, scoring 13.
Center Adam Parada led UCI with 15 points, while Harris added 13.
The Anteaters shot 46.2 percent for the game compared with 40.8 for USU. UCI shot 51.7 percent in the first half.
–slbk5@cc.usu.edu