Coach Les says that the win over Long Beach may be the greatest game in his experience.
Excerpt from today's Davis Enterprise:
Jim Les says he has played in, coached or simply watched a great number of basketball games in his life, but he’s not sure any of them can top UC Davis’ 105-104 double-overtime road win Saturday night at Long Beach State.
“It’s certainly in the conversation as the greatest game in my experience,” said the Aggie head coach, who played collegiately at Bradley and then seven years in the NBA (including four with the Sacramento Kings).
The dramatic win was sealed when point guard T.J. Shorts II hit a running 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds left after Long Beach had taken a 104-102 lead with 6.4 seconds remaining.
Joe Mooney started the play with a pinpoint in-bound strike to Rogers Printup near midcourt. Printup responded with a perfect bounce pass to the streaking Shorts, who took it in stride and raced downcourt uncontested before launching the game-winning shot.
“We run that play in practice every day and it never works,” said Les with a knowing laugh. “But the attention to detail on that play was fantastic. Rogers’ pass hit T.J. perfectly.”
Shorts pulled up just behind the 3-point arc even though the path to the basket was relatively clear for a layup that would have tied the game and sent things into a third overtime.
“I probably would have gone for the layup at that point, but these guys are way smarter than I am,” Les said.
“They’re UC Davis students. I’m glad they didn’t listen to the coach. I saw T.J.’s shot go up and I thought it looked pretty good. It’s got a chance.”
Shorts said he never considered anything but the trey, given that three of his teammates were out of the game with five fouls.
“There was no way we were going to go into a third overtime,” Shorts allowed. “We were going to end it right there.”
With a soft smile and a concession speech – he still holds out hope that he will grow taller – he also reveals a family trait: a playful sense of humor.
“You should talk to my mom,” he offers, shaking his head. “Her name is Darlene Long. My father’s name is Timothy Shorts. She goes by Long-Shorts.”