Comeback win one for the ages

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Feb. 14, 2005 | 9:38 a.m.

Here is a breakdown of the final 17.8 seconds of UNLV's improbable 10-point comeback Saturday at San Diego State, starting with the Aztecs leading 81-71:

SAN DIEGO --- UNLV head basketball coach Lon Kruger said he hadn't seen anything like it in his 35 years as a college coach and player.

Rebels senior forward Odartey Blankson said "it seemed like a dream."

"It" was arguably the greatest comeback in UNLV basketball history as the Rebels (11-11 overall, 3-6 Mountain West Conference) overcame a 10-point deficit in the final 18 seconds of regulation en route to a stunning 93-91 overtime victory against San Diego State on Saturday at Cox Arena.

"This was a game you could replay a thousand times and you can't lose that game," San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said. "But we did."

In fact, most of the crowd of 5,897, including about a half-dozen NBA scouts and Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, had left the building to beat the traffic on a dark, rainy afternoon on Montezuma Mesa.

Aztecs forward Marcus Slaughter, who finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds, was so confident that with his team up by 11 points, 73-62, with a little more than a minute to go, he waved his arms to the crowd to stand and cheer. He even blew a kiss.

And when Aztecs freshman guard Matt Thomas sank a pair of free throws with 28.5 seconds left to keep San Diego State's lead in double digits, 81-71, there seemed little likelihood the Rebels would pull off a comeback for the ages.

But Blankson put in a rebound of Michael Umeh 3-point miss with 17.8 seconds to cut the lead to eight, 81-73.

Then Slaughter made a pair of crucial blunders.

On the ensuing inbounds pass, he threw the ball behind Chris Walton and out of bounds. Then Slaughter made an even bigger gaffe by hip-checking Blankson, who came into the game shooting just 23 percent from 3-point range, on a 25-foot attempt for an obvious foul.

The foul not only stopped the clock, which was UNLV's biggest enemy, at 13.6 seconds, it also awarded one of the conference's top foul shooters three free throws.

Blankson calmly swished all three to cut the lead to five, 81-76.

Still, any hopes of UNLV forcing overtime, much less pulling out a victory, seemed like a long shot.

UNLV freshman swingman Curtis Terry alertly fouled Aztecs forward Trimaine Davis, a 43 percent free throw shooter, on the inbounds pass before even a tick went off the clock.

Davis missed both foul shots. Blankson rebounded the second miss and quickly got the ball to point guard Jerel Blassingame, who pulled up and nailed a 3-pointer with 7.6 seconds remaining, and UNLV trailed by just two points, 81-79.

The enusing inbounds pass again went to Davis instead of guard Brandon Heath, who made a Cox Arena record 17-of-17 at the free-throw line in the game, and Blassingame quickly ran him down and fouled him with 5.6 seconds left.

Davis missed the first of his two free throws but made the second to put the Aztecs up by three, 82-79. Rebels point guard Ricky Morgan quickly dribbled the ball up the court and fed the ball to Terry, who was covered by freshman Tyler Smith, to the right of the key with a little more than two seconds remaining.

"I tried to go left to get an open shot," Terry said. "I couldn't, so I swung back right, up-faked and just let it go."

The ball was not even halfway to the basket when the buzzer went off.

"When I let it go I pretty much knew it was going in because it felt right and I knew it was on line," Terry said.

He was right. Game tied, 82-82.

Blassingame led the bench out to midcourt to mob Terry, who began the year as a walk-on.

As the Rebels jogged back to the bench to get ready for the improbable overtime, Terry screamed to his teammates, "Lets finish it! We've got to finish it!"

San Diego State took the early overtime lead on a pair of Heath free throws and led by three points, 91-88, with 1:32 left, thanks to a nice drive to the basket by Heath (game-high 29 points, all after halftime) that resulted in a three-point play.

Guard Michael Umeh (22 points) cut the deficit to one with a pair of free throws. Then Morgan came up with a steal and made a nifty drive to the basket to give UNLV a 92-91 lead with 50.8 seconds to go.

Fisher called timeout to try to get his squad to regroup one more time. But Blankson deflected Chris Walton's inbounds pass to Louis Amundson and Heath fouled Morgan a few seconds later.

Morgan hit one of two free throws to put the Rebels up by two with 28.2 seconds left. Heath, double-teamed each time he attempted to drive to the basket, eventually missed an off-balance drive to the hoop but Walton got the rebound and was fouled by Morgan with 1.4 seconds left.

Walton, a 50 percent free-throw shooter who had been battling the flu for about a week, shot an air ball on his first attempt, then intentionally missed his second shot hoping for an offensive rebound and putback.

But Amundson came down with the ball as the buzzer went off and the Rebels began a wild and loud celebration that lasted for several minutes in the locker room.

"I'm just so proud of our guys' effort there late because obviously they didn't quit," Kruger said. "They dug in there and made a lot of shots. It's just a big, big win for us."

The kind of win that can pull a struggling team together and maybe turn a disappointing season around?

"Well, guys feel awfully good about it," Kruger said, smiling. "That's a good week of effort. We kind of staggered a little in the middle (of the game) today, yet to bounce back like that was hopefully a lesson learned."

"It at least lets us know that we can never give up in a game," said Blankson, who finished with a team-high 23 points. "I don't really know how we came back. I try to think about how we did it. They were making free throws and I saw a lot of their fans leaving. ... It just feels good to get a win like this on the road."

Kruger said he had never witnessed such a dramatic comeback in the final seconds of a college game.

"I've been coaching and playing for 35 years at the college level and I've never seen it, ever, quite frankly," Kruger said.

"As a team, we counted our chickens before they hatched by celebrating too early," Heath said. "College basketball is a funny game. You have to play until the horn blows."