Northridge Burned on Playground Shot, 61-60

Practice does make perfect. Just ask Dorian Manigo.

After each practice, Manigo fine-tunes his shooting.

A running three-point attempt, a shot during which he leaves the floor just beyond the top of the key, glides through the air, then releases the ball as he hovers above the free-throw line, headlines his routine.

“My teammates always get on me,” Manigo said. “They say, ‘Why that shot?’ ”

Now they know.

That shot at the buzzer gave Eastern Washington a 61-60 victory over Cal State Northridge on Saturday night in the third-place game of the Gaucho Classic at the UC Santa Barbara Events Center.

“That’s one thing I said to our guys about Dorian,” Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy lamented. “He’s very acrobatic.”

Cassidy, perhaps above all others, should know.

Northridge recruited Manigo out of San Francisco Riordan High in 1990. In fact, he signed the 6-foot-1 guard to a letter of intent.

However, Manigo failed to meet NCAA entrance requirements and did not enroll at CSUN. Instead, following Cassidy’s suggestion, he went to Santa Monica College. Eastern Washington recruited him from there.

Manigo scored nine points. The game-winner was the only one of four three-point attempts that he made.

Northridge (0-3) trailed until the final three minutes. Brooklyn McLinn seemingly put the Matadors ahead for good by making a fall-away three-point shot with three seconds left to make the score 60-58.

Eastern Washington called timeout with the clock showing 0:02.

But, despite protests by Cassidy, an official added two more seconds to the clock during the timeout. Manigo got his shot off just before the buzzer.

As the officials raised their hands to indicate it was from beyond the three-point line, Cassidy went into a rage. He chased the trio of officials off the floor as they headed for their dressing room.

“People tell me that the replay shows he took it from behind the line,” Cassidy said after cooling off a bit. “That takes care of that. But what about those mysterious two seconds?”

Eastern Washington (2-1) led by as many as 12 points in the first half and nine in the second.

Northridge shot only 38.1% in the first half, struggling against the Eagles’ match-up zone until the game’s final minutes.

The Matadors hit nine of their last 10 shots but were hurt by a pair of costly turnovers in the final 1 1/2 minutes.

Northridge trailed, 53-48, with 3:31 to play before rallying on consecutive three-pointers by Andre Chevalier, James Morris and McLinn to take a 57-56 lead with 1:59 remaining.

The Matadors had their lead, the momentum and the ball with 1:21 left when Chevalier was called for a 10-second violation while walking the ball up the floor.

Eastern Washington didn’t capitalize, but when a Chevalier pass was lost the next time down the floor, the Eagles cashed in.

Austin Layton, who had game highs of 22 points and eight rebounds, scored off an offensive rebound with 11 seconds left to put Eastern Washington ahead, 58-57.

But then McLinn struck from three-point range for Northridge.

McLinn, who scored 11 points to share team high-point honors with Peter Micelli, said he glanced at the scoreboard clock immediately after his arching, long-distance bomb put the Matadors in front.

“There were two seconds,” McLinn said. “I thought that was it. After a shot like that, we were so high. They had to be just as low.”

Especially Manigo, who was defending McLinn. Then again, he has come back before.

Unable to attend Northridge, Manigo went on to become Santa Monica’s most valuable player.

But when it came time for another serious recruiting run, Northridge backed off, its roster already full of backcourt players.

School and player parted amiably. “We’ve kept the friendship,” Manigo said. “But considering my ties to Northridge, this feels real good.”