Editor’s note: The following column from the Best of West collection was originally published in the Port Arthur News on Jan. 16, 1980.

CHICAGO — Moral victory or not, Billy Tubbs wasn’t ready to celebrate after Lamar University nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history Tuesday night at Alumni Hall.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed,” Tubbs admitted, following LU’s last-second, 61-59 loss to No. 1 ranked DePaul. “It’s terribly disappointing to come that close and lose. I wish we’d had another minute.”

Sophomore guard Skip Dillard, a thorn in LU’s side all night, put out the lights on a gallant comeback effort when he drilled a 15-foot jumper from the left of the foul circle with three seconds left. The Redbirds weren’t able to get off a tying field goal attempt.

“We didn’t deserve to win. We were lucky,” sighed DePaul’s visibly upset coach Ray Meyer. “Instead of No. 1, we played like No. 100. But you got to give Lamar credit. They took it to us. They’re the most physical team we’ve played. B.B. Davis and Clarence Kea intimidated us inside.”

Davis scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Kea had 16 boards to go with nine points in helping LU battle the heralded Chicago outfit to a virtual standoff. Kea and Davis were particularly dominating in the first half when they had 11 and 9 rebounds, respectively.

“It looked like they were playing volleyball on the offensive boards in the first half, fumed Meyer, whose team is now 13-0 and has won 33 straight at home. “Good rebounders have to want to get the ball, and those two obviously wanted it worse than our people. Davis is one of the best big men we’ve faced.”

As instrumental as Davis and Kea were in the near miss, the biggest factor of all was probably Tubbs’ strategical expertise. Coaching perhaps the game of his life, the LU mentor punched all the right buttons. Especially when DePaul employed questionable delay tactics with 9:30 remaining.

Leading 57-48 and seemingly on the verge of breaking the game open, the Blue Demons slowed the game to walk trying to bring Lamar out of its 2-1-2 zone. Tubbs refused to play into DePaul’s hands by switching to a man-to-man, and eventually had a 59-59 tie for a reward.

“We’d have let them hold it down to the four-minute mark,” Tubbs explained his strategy. “If we’d started gambling right away, they might have beaten us by 25. Not many teams can sit on the ball for a long period of time without making mistakes. They made a bunch.”

Lamar pulled within 57-50 at 6:04 on a 10-foot jumper by Turk Williams, got within five at 5:03 on a rebound bucket by Kea, then closed to 57-54 on a pair of free throws by Davis. Mike Olliver, who labored through a horrendous 4-of-13 night, made it 59-56 with a 22-footer from the left corner.

Olliver followed that bucket with a three-point play courtesy of Alvin Brooks’ steal for forge a tie at 59 with 0:37 on the clock.

Lamar, however, never had an opportunity to go ahead. DePaul held for the final shot and Dillard made it count.

Aside from Olliver’s frigid shooting, LU came amazingly close to executing Tubbs’ game plan to perfection. His blueprint for an upset called for Lamar to neutralize DePaul inside with a zone defense, battle the Blue Demons on even terms under the boards and control the flow of the game.

The Cardinals did all three but it wasn’t enough to overcome a 36 percent night from the field.