PULLMAN – Washington State was the only Pacific-12 Conference school that recruited DaVonte Lacy with much fervor, and Lacy is still plenty steamed about it.
“After every game,” Lacy said, “I hope every coach says, ‘I wish I recruited him.’ ”
The California Bears became the latest team to pay for overlooking Lacy when the freshman guard from Curtis High School in University Place drained a winning 3-pointer with 18.3 seconds to play in a 77-75 thriller Saturday afternoon at Beasley Coliseum.
“That was the biggest (shot) I’ve ever hit because it was at this level,” Lacy said.
Lacy’s clutch shot from the left corner snapped a 74-74 tie and gave the Cougars their second straight win over a first-place team. Stanford and California were tied for the Pac-12 lead before the Cougars beat the Cardinal on Thursday.
The Cougars improved to 7-0 in Pullman when Bears star Jorge Gutierrez missed a 3-pointer at the final horn. A loud, enthusiastic crowd of 5,013 – largest of the season at Beasley – took advantage of a break in the recent snowy weather to watch a highly entertaining contest packed with lead changes and ties down the stretch.
As they did Thursday, the Cougars (11-8 overall, 3-4 Pac-12) trailed most of the way, but rallied with plenty of help from sixth man Faisal Aden. The senior wing followed up on a career-high 33-point performance by scoring 24 points on 9-for-12 shooting.
“Of nine shots made, I bet seven were layups,” California coach Mike Montgomery said. “He just kind of blew by us, so that was disappointing.”
Aden, a streaky 3-point shooter, has attacked the basket to score most of his points the past two games on layups and free throws. Gutierrez, one of the most respected defensive players in the Pac-12, struggled to guard Aden.
“Faisal is playing really good right now,” Lacy said.
Aden poured in 16 points in the first half. Cougars scoring leader Brock Motum, scoreless the first 19 minutes, scored 13 of his 15 points after WSU trailed 40-34 at the half.
“Our defense was really lacking, particularly at the end of the game,” California forward Harper Kamp said.
Motum matched his career high of 10 rebounds to help WSU win on the boards (33-30) for the first time in Pac-12 play. Lacy had 14 points, and senior forward Abe Lodwick came off the bench to score a season-high 12 points on a career-high four 3-pointers.
All five starters scored in double figures for California (16-5, 6-2), led by Gutierrez with 19.
Aden keyed WSU’s 42-4 advantage in bench points. That made up for 16 turnovers (five by Aden), which led to Cal’s 22-5 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Cougars, tied with UCLA for seventh place in the Pac-12 standings, visit sixth-place Arizona (13-7, 4-3) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Root Sports will televise.
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