M. water polo gets past Trojans, 13-12
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 11, 1995 9:00 p.m.
M. water polo gets past Trojans, 13-12
Bruins win in triple overtime after ‘SC scores buzzer-beater
By Esther Hui
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It doesn’t get much closer than this.
In triple sudden death overtime, UCLA’s Steve Covec scored to
put UCLA ahead of No. 2 seed USC, 13-12, to grab a third-place
showing at the spring men’s water polo tournament. It was the first
meeting of the year for the two teams, with both missing their most
valuable senior players from the 1994 season. The Bruins’ Scott
Turner and ‘SC’s Uzi Hadar were not present, but already the
rivalry has resulted in a bit of controversy.
The Bruins led 10-9, with 10 seconds left in the last quarter
when the Trojans stole the ball and shot. The ball tipped out of
bounds with one second left on the clock. As the game restarted, a
Trojan shot the ball from across the pool and it rolled in just as
the buzzer sounded, sending the game into two three-minute
overtimes, and three sudden-death overtimes.
"It’s just physically impossible in that time for that ball to
have gone in," UCLA head coach Guy Baker said of the one-second
play. "They couldn’t have been running the clock. When a ball is
out of bounds in a certain spot there’s just not enough time for it
to make the goal. The referees allowed the goal, but we still won
in overtime."
It was the third game of the weekend for the Bruins, who beat
No. 5 seed Pepperdine 12-4 , and lost 7-6 to Stanford in the
semifinals on Saturday. The 1994 National Champion Cardinal went on
to win the entire tournament over second place Irvine. Three-seed
California finished seventh, all indicating how the top teams from
last season will do without seniors in the fall.
"I thought we played really well," Baker said. "… it was
encouraging. A lot of solid efforts from a lot of people.
"We’ve definitely got a legitimate chance in this year coming
up."
