Trouble at Line Costs Moorpark in Loss to Santa Monica

The term “free throw” was an ironic misnomer for the Moorpark College men’s basketball team Saturday night.

Failures at the free-throw line proved costly for Moorpark in an 83-82 upset at the hands of visiting Santa Monica.

With one second remaining, Moorpark’s Damian Wilson missed a free throw that would have tied the score, but his misfire was merely the last for a Moorpark team that found the scoring anything but free on some throat-tightening, pressure-ridden foul shots down the stretch.

Moorpark, 17-3 and ranked sixth in the state, made only two of its last six free throws. Moorpark lost at home for the first time this season despite leading by as many as nine points in the second half of the Western State Conference interdivision game.

The Raiders also squandered a 31-point, 10-assist performance by point guard Sam Crawford.

“We knew we had a tough game to play,” Moorpark Coach Al Nordquist said. “It’s a matter of doing the right job down the stretch.”

Santa Monica (13-7) won with a combination of fire and ice. The Corsairs attempted to ice Wilson by calling timeouts before each of his two game-deciding free throws. Wilson made the first, but the second was just short.

The fire was a steaming 21-of-33 second-half shooting performance that pulled Santa Monica back from a 38-32 halftime deficit.

Santa Monica took its first lead of the second half when it pulled ahead, 76-75, with 3 minutes 19 seconds remaining. Moorpark tied the game with 50 seconds left when Nate Hantgin hit one of two free throws, but Dana Harris made it 83-81 Santa Monica with a short jump shot at the seven-second mark.

The plan was for Crawford or Wilson to take the final shot. When Crawford got in trouble inside the time line, he whipped a cross-court pass to a streaking Wilson, who was fouled on the layup to set up the penultimate free throws.

Crawford made six three-point shots, and seven of eight free throws.

Wilson, playing with an injured left hand, began to shake off a shooting slump by hitting five of seven second-half field-goal attempts and finishing with 16 points.

In one of his best games of the season, Moorpark’s Mike Waggoner scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.