Sunday, Feb. 15, 1998
By SCOTT M. JOHNSON
Enterprise staff writer
HAYWARD -- Never in his UC Davis men's basketball career has senior forward Rick Gonzales seen himself as the go-to guy.
Yet when the Aggies found themselves in grave danger of losing their first Northern California Athletic Conference game of the season, Gonzales was the obvious choice to bail UCD out.
Gonzales finished off his finest game as an Aggie by hitting the go-ahead basket with 4.5 seconds remaining, and UCD went on to a 72-68 win at Pioneer Gym after coming back from a late seven-point deficit on Saturday.
Gonzales scored a career-high 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting to pick up the scoring slack left by two missing starters. But no basket was bigger than his turnaround bank shot off a pass from Dante Ross to give the Aggies a 70-68 lead. Senior Travon Dugar added a layup at the buzzer after Chris Vlasic knocked away a Pioneers inbounds pass to secure the win.
``I just felt it,'' said Gonzales, who was averaging only 4.2 points per game despite scoring 22 in the Aggies' opener this season. ``A lot of it had to do with my teammates. They were getting me the ball.''
For all of his heroics -- Gonzales basically kept UCD in the game single-handedly during a ragged first half -- the Sierra College product wasn't necessarily supposed to take the eventual game-winning shot.
Ross took a pass from Dugar and tried a spin move, but was cut off by Hayward's Michael Dean. Gonzales got in position under the basket and took a pass before putting it off the glass as the ninth-ranked Aggies took the lead back for good.
``I didn't know how much time was left on the clock,'' said Gonzales, who came off the bench to hit five of his first six shots. ``When I got it, I just thought I had to get it off.''
Just 25 seconds earlier, Gonzales helped to give the Aggies (22-2, 12-0 NCAC) their first lead in almost five minutes when he blocked a shot by Hayward's Aaron Curry to set up a Dugar fast-break layup with 29 seconds left for a 68-66 lead. Dugar also had an assist and another basket on a strong move to help UCD pull even after trailing 66-59 with 2:13 remaining.
``Everybody was calm and confident,'' said UCD guard Keith Jackson, another of the Aggies' bench players who contributed. ``It was kind of funny. With other teams I've been on in those situations, people are panicking. But people were calm. I think it's because we have so many seniors.''
UCD got a break when Hayward senior Charles Wiley, fouled out with 2:44 left, leaving an undermanned Hayward team with only seven players.
``We've been playing a lot of minutes, so we're used to it,'' said Wiley, who had 11 points and four assists. ``We have got six good players, so sometimes we have to take our blows on the court, whereas a team like Davis keeps putting in bodies to stay fresh. They're a tough team. I really wanted to beat them.''
UCD was not exactly swimming in bodies, either. Playing without starters Justis Durkee and J.C. Timmons, the Aggies got off to a slow start.
But Gonzales scored 13 quick points to give UCD its first lead.
``It was a struggle,'' said UCD coach Bob Williams, who admitted that he sat some players for extended periods of time to send a message. ``But it was also a struggle because Hayward played well.
``...Rick stepped in and got extended minutes and started off in a good rhythm. It's great to see Rick do something that was so positive.''
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