Orlando Johnson tied a school record with 39 points and James Nunnally added 23 as UCSB rallied late to force overtime and then defeat visiting UC Davis, 93-86. Mark Payne had a career-high 33 points for the Aggies. The win was the 400th of Bob Williams’ coaching career.
UCSB (12-9 overall, 5-5 Big West) trailed UC Davis (8-14 overall, 3-7 Big West) by nine, 76-67, with under four minutes to play. Johnson made a pair of free throws with 3:44 left and then a powerful lay-up with 3:01 on the clock to narrow the deficit to 76-71. Eddie Miller answered with a baseline jumper to stretch the Aggie lead back to seven, 78-71, with 2:26 remaining.
Following a timeout, Nunnally made a driving lay-up and was fouled with 2:11 left. He missed the free throw, but the Gauchos got another stop on the defensive end and Jon Pastorek was fouled on the ensuing possession with 1:30 left. Pastorek made the first free throw and missed the second, but Christian Peterson took the offensive rebound and got the ball to Johnson who was fouled going in for a lay-up and made both free throws to pull Santa Barbara within two, 78-76.
UCSB continued to pressure Davis and Miller was called for a travel with 47 seconds left. Once more, the Gauchos got the ball to Johnson and he delivered, scoring on another powerful lay-up from the right side, tying the score at 78 apiece with 37 seconds left.
Miller was fouled by Peterson on Davis’ next possession but he missed the front end of a one-and-one and Jordan Weiner rebounded for the Gauchos. Nunnally got the ball at the free throw line, drove into the lane and made a short pull-up bank shot with 17 seconds left to give UCSB an 80-78 lead with 16.8 seconds left. It was the Gauchos first lead since they led 12-11 early in the first half.
The Aggies, however, weren’t through. They got the ball into Payne and the senior drove his way down the court and calmly made a jumper from just inside the free throw line, tying the game at 80-80 with 5.7 seconds left. Weiner missed a three-point attempt as time ran out and the game went to overtime.
The game remained close through the early part of the overtime and when Miller made two free throws with 2:28 remaining, it was tied 86-86.
Johnson snapped the tie with 2:03 left when he was fouled going to the basket. He made both free throws to give UCSB an 88-86 lead. The Aggies had four opportunities to tie the score on their next possession. Miller missed a jumper but Todd Lowenthal collected the rebound. Lowenthal missed a contested lay-up but got his own rebound and passed the ball back to Miller whose jumper from just outside the key was blocked by Pastorek. Miller rebounded the ball but the Gauchos got possession when Ryan Silva was called for traveling.
Nunnally was fouled for UCSB and he made the second of two free throws to stretch the lead to 89-86.
Following a timeout, Davis worked the ball to Payne but his short shot from the middle of the key was blocked by Johnson. Silva got the rebound and then missed a three-pointer. Will Brew rebounded for the Gauchos and found Johnson who was fouled with 28 seconds to play. He made both free throws to extend the advantage to 91-86. Davis missed a three-point attempt with 15 seconds to play and again Johnson was fouled. He made both free throws to ice the game, 93-86.
“That was one we really needed,” Johnson said of the win that ended a two-game losing streak. “Hopefully this snaps us out of it a little bit. We fought hard and the hard work paid off.”
Johnson made 12-of-19 shots from the field and 14-of-17 from the free throw line to tie a single-game points record originally set in 1985 by Scott Fisher.
“Records are nice,” Johnson said, “but winning is nicer.”
Nunnally was 10-of-12 for UCSB, including 2-for-2 from three-point territory. The Gauchos made 55.7% of their shots overall. Davis made 55.4% of its field goals overall, but missed all six attempts in the overtime. The Aggies were on fire in the first half making 17-of-24 shots overall, 70.8%, and 7-of-11 from three-point territory, 63.6%. They finished the game 11-of-18 from outside the arc, 61.1%. Payne made 11-of-16 field goal attempts, including both of his three-point shots.
UCSB will travel for its next two games. The Gauchos play at UC Riverside on Thursday, Feb. 10 for a game that will tip-off at 7:00 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 12, they play UC Irvine in a 5:30 p.m. game that will be televised on Fox Sports West.
Nice! great game–way to go Gauchos!