Cuesta College men’s basketball team loses in double OT in game to decide conference title

The Cuesta College men’s basketball team fell in double overtime to Moorpark 107-100 on Saturday. With the loss, Cuesta (22-9, 8-4) drops to third place in the Western State Conference, behind Ventura and Moorpark, both at 9-3.

Roberto Mantovani led the Cougars with 37 points and was 4-for-4 from 3-pointers. Coach Rusty Blair estimated that Mantovani had “20 plus rebounds” to go along with his scoring output.

Benat Hevia and Karem Ozel each had 16 points, and Rafael Eleftheriou added 15 points.

Larry Bush led the Raiders with 39 points.

Cuesta had chances to win in regulation when Eleftheriou missed a 3-pointer, and then Ozel and Moiseev missed a layup and a 3-pointer in the last 20 seconds of the first overtime.

The Cougars were hindered by foul trouble and were called for 45 fouls to Moorparks 15, Blair said. For the last 20 minutes of the game, including the overtime period, Moorpark was called for one foul to Cuesta’s 17, according to Blair.

Cuesta went 8-for-14 from the free-throw line to Moorpark’s 21-of-29.

The seedings for the playoffs will be released Monday after 3 p.m. Cuesta could play Wednesday, but it may earn a first-round bye based on seeding and play either Friday or Saturday.

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 9:24 PM with the headline "Cuesta College men’s basketball team loses in double OT in game to decide conference title."