It was an evening most foul for the Seattle University men's basketball team in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Everywhere you looked in Mott Gym on the campus of California Polytechnic State University, ugly and acutely painful ironies were waiting 'round the bend to haunt coach Cameron Dollar and his road-weary Redhawks, in their fourth game of a six-game road trip.
This was supposed to be the game in which SU repaid former boss Joe Callero - now on the Cal Poly bench - with a revenge-filled thumping after Callero switched schools in early April.
This was supposed to be the game in which the conquerors of Mountain West mainstay Utah got back on the beam following a one-point loss to Wofford last Saturday in Las Vegas.
This was supposed to be the game in which the up-and-coming Redhawks reminded Callero and Cal Poly - who were 0-5 entering this encounter - that Seattle U's program was better than the one Callero inherited several months ago.
Instead, a Thursday night throwdown in Southern California turned Callero's frowns upside-down, while leaving the Redhawks in a state of utter disbelief.
There's only one stat you need to know about in Cal Poly's 85-74 win over SU, which gave the Mustangs their first win of the season and dropped Dollar's crew to 4-4. Free throws are supposed to be free, and the foul line is often called the charity stripe for a reason, but in this game, SU paid a price for those uncontested standstill shots 15 feet from the basket. Moreover, the Redhawks were generous at a place on the court where selfishness is a basketball virtue.
Yes, we're just trying to make you brace for the full weight of this statistic, and we can't hold it back any longer.
Here goes (sigh): Seattle U went 22-of-48 from the free throw line in this game. In other words, the Redhawks missed a majority of free throws, 54 percent to be exact. Yes, that's not a misprint: SU made just 46 percent of its foul shots.
Charles Garcia? He went 7-of-18, worse than his 9-of-18 performance from the field. Aaron Broussard? He made just 3-of-9 charity pitches. Reserve guard Garrett Lever? Coming off the bench didn't help the son of former NBA great Lafayette Lever. The offspring of the one nicknamed "Fat" experienced thin times at the line, going just 5-of-11 on the evening.
To put this in greater perspective, SU would have won with a 34-of-48 outing from the line, or a modest 71 percent clip. And had the Redhawks shot 81 percent from the line (39-of-48), they would have had several points to spare.
Free throws almost led to defeat for this team in a narrow win over Fresno State in the home opener back on Nov. 19. On an early-December evening just two weeks later, the foul line foiled SU's plans for a conquest of Joe Callero.
As Cameron Dollar gets his club ready for a date with UC-Davis (Saturday, 1 p.m. Pacific time in Davis, Calif.), one doesn't have to wonder about the main point of focus in the Redhawks' locker room. As this season continues, other teams - not SU - must pay a price when Charles Garcia and Co. get fouled in the act of shooting.
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