Glendale Falls When Last Shot Does Not, 75-74

Outside, inside, off the break . . . the shots seemed to be falling from everywhere for Glendale College against Santa Monica in a Western State Conference game Saturday night.

But Glendale came up short when its final shot was too long as time elapsed in a 75-74 loss.

“We were fortunate to get out of this one,” said Santa Monica Coach John McMullen after the Corsairs extended their conference win streak to 29 games. “We were skating on thin ice.

“It was like a game of tennis that went back and forth. It was just one long deuce.”

With eight seconds to play and the Vaqueros trailing by a point, Glendale (13-7, 1-1 in conference play) had possession beneath Santa Monica’s basket.

Vigen Serop, who had 10 assists, drove to midcourt under heavy pressure and passed off to Justin Lord, who fired an off-balance 20-foot jump shot from the right side with two seconds left. The ball caromed off the rim back to Lord, who caught the ball while in midair and tossed up a five-foot shot which hit the back of the rim as the buzzer sounded.

“I thought the shot was going in,” Glendale Coach Brian Beauchemin said. “We played our hearts out tonight. We had the game won, but couldn’t hit our free throws.”

With the score tied, 73-73, Glendale’s Bruce Heicke was fouled by Santa Monica’s Chris Cook on a layup. With 43 seconds to play, Heicke sank the first free throw, but his second bounced off the front end of the rim and the Corsairs (19-3, 2-0) drove down the court to score what proved to be the winning basket.

Glendale led for most of the first half and was still in front, 73-70, before Donald Smith tied the score on a three-point basket with a little more than a minute to play.

Dave Swanson led Glendale with 21 points, mostly on long-range shots. He was three of four from three-point range and gave the Vaqueros a 71-68 lead with 3:26 to play on a thunderous, two-hand jam off a fast break.

Heicke scored 20 points on six-of-20 shooting, but was only two of five from the line.

Cook and Smith led Santa Monica scorers with 17 points each. Cook scored 12 in the second half, including 10 of the Corsairs’ first 12 points after intermission.