Box Score This time there was no confusion once the red light lit. No journey from ecstasy to anger. This time there was no doubt. UC San Diego beat the buzzer and the Chico State men's basketball team.
Nine days short of the anniversary of a game in which the Tritons' James McCann made a three-quarters court shot that was originally ruled good and would have sent the game into overtime at Acker Gym. Three-hundred fifty-six days after the officials ruled that the three-10ths of a second left before the inbounds did not allow for a catch-and-shoot basket by rule, Drew Dyer downed a 16-foot jumper at the buzzer to beat the Wildcats 66-64.
Chico State tied the game on Amir Carraway's 3-pointer with 1:11 left and then took the lead on Jordan Semple's reverse layup with 10 seconds remaining.
But UC San Diego's Hunter Walker made two free throws with 1.6 seconds left to tie the game, and after the Wildcats turned over the inbounds pass, the Tritons got to inbound the ball from under their own basket.
McCann threw it in to Dyer just inside the three-point line on the left wing and he drained a contested fadeaway shot, setting off a celebration the Tritons have no doubt been thirsting after for a year.
Carraway finished with 17 points and nine rebounds for the Wildcats, who fell to 14-5 overall and 10-5 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). Giordano Estrada and Sean Park scored 12 points apiece. Semple stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, 11 rebounds, four blocked shots, three steals and a pair of assists.
But the night belonged to McCann, the senior guard who won in Chico for the first time. He matched his season-high with 23 points, 13 of which came in the second half. He started a 14-0 run that gave the Tritons their first lead of the night with a pair of layups and capped it with a 3-pointer and an assist on a Dyer triple that pushed UC San Diego's advantage to 60-54 with 6:19 remaining.
An Estrada three and Semple slam trimmed the lead to one, and after Walker scored inside (assisted by McCann of course), Carraway coolly canned his first 3-pointer of the night to tie the game with 1:11 to play.
Semple scored what might have been the winning basket with a drive from the right wing and reverse layup with 10 ticks remaining.
But those 10 ticks made all the difference.
UC San Diego hit 7-of-14 threes in the second half against a Chico State defense that entered the game ranked 11th in the country, allowing opponents to shoot only 29.7 percent from beyond the arc. Aleks Lipovic was 3-for-5, Dyer 2-for-3 and McCann 2-for-4. Dyer finished with 17 points and nine rebounds and Lipovic scored 12. The Tritons, winners of four of their last five, improved to 11-8 overall and 7-8 in the CCAA.
On a night he'd certainly rather forget, Semple reached some memorable milestones. The junior pushed past Chico State greats Rich Hogan, Jeff Carter and Ben Perak into seventh on the school's career rebounding list with 546. He also jumped former teammate Jason Conrad into a tie with Richard Ross for second in blocked shots with 87. He's two shy of Perak's school record.
Chico State will attempt to rebound against first-place Cal State San Bernardino Saturday night. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
