Bucknell University
5-5
UC Santa Barbara
3-7
Clutch Shooting Lifts Bucknell Men's Basketball Past UC Santa Barbara, 67-60
12/28/2002 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2002
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - Freshman Kevin Bettencourt scored 19 points and Chris Rodgers came off the bench to score 18 as Bucknell ousted UC Santa Barbara 67-60 in the third-place game of the azcentral.com Hoops Classic at Arizona State.
One night after taking a 27-point drubbing by the host Sun Devils, Bucknell (5-5) raced to a quick 9-0 lead, then had to overcome a pair of seven-point deficits to defeat the defending Big West champions.
Mark Hull scored 20 points and Branduinn Fullove had 18 for UCSB (3-7), which has dropped five in a row.
The Bison trailed 43-38 with nine minutes remaining in the game before embarking on a game-changing 10-0 run that included a crucial six-point possession. After Charles Lee's put-back cut the deficit to 43-42, Hull shoved Bucknell's Ben Slater to the ground while trying to take the ball out of bounds and picked up a flagrant foul. Rodgers made two free throws, and on the ensuing possession Dan Blankenship made two more from the stripe to give the Bison the lead for good. Lalugba, who started the run, also capped it with a layup to give Bucknell a 48-43 lead.
The Gauchos cut it to one at 50-49 on Fullove's leaner in the lane with 5:28 to play, but a Lalugba dunk and two long 3-pointers by Bettencourt stretched the lead to seven at 58-51. Two desperation threes by Hull and another by Fullove kept UCSB in the game, but Bucknell iced it with clutch free-throw shooting.
Ranked last in the Patriot League in free-throw shooting at 61 percent coming into the game, Bucknell was 9 of 10 from the line in the final minute and 24 of 29 (83 percent) for the game. In that last minute Rodgers was 7 of 8 and Bettencourt 2 of 2 to keep the Gauchos from having a shot to tie or take the lead.
"We haven't been a great free-throw shooting team, but tonight we got the right people to the line," said head coach Pat Flannery. "Our bench was outstanding. We knew we wanted to run some different lineups in there and our bench was really the difference."
Lalugba was held to 10 points and eight rebounds but was effective kicking the ball back to the perimeter against double and triple teams. The Bison drained nine 3-pointers, including five by Bettencourt, who tied his career scoring high.
"Our fans back East may not realize how good this UCSB team is," said Flannery. "They won a good conference last year and returned a lot of players. I thought we defended them well and showed pretty good patience on offense."
Bucknell shocked the Gauchos with a 9-0 start that included a trey by Bettencourt and four points by Matt Quinn. But the Bison endured a stretch of more than 11 minutes with only one field goal, and UCSB took advantage with a 22-6 run to assume a 22-15 lead with 5:29 left in the half. A trey by Blankenship ended the drought, and Rodgers' 3-pointer with 15 seconds left gave the Bison a 27-26 lead.
Fullove's first points of the game came on a long 3-pointer at the buzzer to give UCSB a 29-27 lead at intermission.
Bucknell outrebounded the Gauchos 27-26 and outscored them from the foul line 24-8. The Bison shot 41.5 percent from the floor, compared to 45.7 percent by UCSB.
Bucknell, which also finished third at this tournament in 1999, will next play Niagara on Jan. 4 in the Bucknell Basketball Kids Classic in Pottsville, Pa.
