Sunday, March 1, 1998
By SCOTT M. JOHNSON
Enterprise staff writer
Bob Williams has preached it all year. Scratch that. Bob Williams has preached it during his entire UC Davis career.
The point guards on his men's basketball teams have to dominate the game, even if that means scoring less than double figures.
Never has the case been so poignantly proven than during the Dante Ross show Friday.
Ross took complete command of the Shaughnessy Tournament championship game, controlling the tempo, running the show with dazzling ball-handling ... and scoring all of eight points.
Of course, no two were more important than his final field goal, a fadeaway bank shot in the lane with two seconds remaining that propelled the Aggies to a 59-57 win over Sonoma State and UCD's fourth consecutive Northern California Athletic Conference postseason title.
The Aggies (26-2), ranked first in the West region and ninth in the country, also earned the NCAC's automatic bid to the regional. They find out at 4:30 p.m. today whether their season was impressive enough to host the tournament.
``I think we earned it,'' guard J.C. Timmons said. ``Regardless of what we think, it doesn't make a difference we don't make the decision. But I think we've done everything we can to prove that we deserve it. I think it points in our direction.''
Timmons had the so-called honor of leading the team in scoring with 13 points. But even he would give the game ball to Ross.
The junior point guard fought off early foul trouble to hit the game-winning shot after UCD had squandered a 13-point lead in the second half.
With the score tied 57-57 and 12 seconds remaining, the Aggies came out of a timeout and gave the ball to Ross. As the clock wound down, Ross backed into the lane and hit the turnaround jumper to give UCD the lead.
Although Sonoma State's Floyd Bullock had a surprisingly good look after a long inbound pass, it missed at the buzzer to keep the Aggies perfect in NCAC play in the final season of the conference's existence.
``I'm a pretty confident player one-on-one,'' said Ross, who also had four assists. ``Zone tends to hurt me a little bit, but one-on-one, I don't have so many problems. They came out and ran man. The worst scenario was I miss the shot and we go into overtime.''
Williams was not worried.
``If he's not MVP of this league, if he's not first-team all-West region, I'll be the most surprised man in America,'' Williams said. ``And it's typical of our point guards where they can be in a situation like Dante, who was at times the dominant player on the floor tonight, and he scores eight points. He runs our system impeccably.''
Sonoma coach Pat Fuscado agreed. He knew Ross would get the ball.
``There was no question - that's why I'm voting for him for the player of the year,'' Fuscado said. ``He's the guy I'd want with the ball.''
The fact that Ross had to hit the game-winner was a tribute to Fuscado's Cossacks (15-12). Although Sonoma had already lost twice to UCD by a combined 23 points this season, the Cossacks never gave up.
Even an 11-point UCD run to open the second half didn't knock the Cossacks out.
``There have been games this year before we've been down 14, 15 points and came back, so I knew we had the potential,'' said Sonoma's Jason Gunnarson, who led his team with 13 points. ``I just didn't know if we could do it, but we did.''
Sonoma made a little run of its own late in the second half, scoring 11 consecutive points to go ahead 57-55 on Brian Carson's 3-pointer with 1:05 remaining.
``When they didn't put us away like they did the first time here,'' Fuscaldo said, ``I felt like they weren't nailing the nails down and we were going to open the coffin, and we did and we got out,'' Fuscado said.
But after Scott Darmstadt tied the game, Gunnarson missed his only shot of the night to set up the game-winner.
Now the Aggies are at the mercy of the NCAA tournament committee, which will decide today whether to put the West teams in Davis or Bakersfield, where the tournament has been held the past two seasons. Cal State Bakersfield is the No. 1 team in the nation, but is ranked second behind the Aggies in the West region poll.
``Nothing against Bakersfield, but a change of scenery would be nice,'' said UCD's Justis Durkee, who had 10 points and 12 rebounds.
But Williams is not certain the Aggies will host.
``It's still 50/50,'' Williams said. ``(Bakersfield is) No. 1 in the nation, and they have greater name recognition than we do in terms of national level Division II basketball.''
Ross doesn't think the Aggies should be overlooked.
``I think our fans deserve it,'' Ross said. ``They've been out here supporting us all year long, and they deserve to see a couple more.''
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