M. hoops succumb to Louisville

M. hoops succumb to Louisville

Numerous turnovers kill hopes for Bruin victory, even with
last-minute comeback at buzzer

By Melissa Anderson

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Despite averaging 18.1 turnovers per game, the UCLA men’s
basketball team had been winning games. But sooner or later, head
coach Jim Harrick knew his team’s luck would run out.

And Saturday afternoon against Louisville, it did.

"We’ve been concerned about our turnovers and they came back to
haunt us today," Harrick said. "We’ve got to find a solution for
that somewhere before we play in (the NCAA tournament) – if we’re
lucky enough to get into the tournament – because that’s an
Achilles heel for our team."

Plagued by 25 turnovers on the afternoon, the Bruins (13-5
overall) somehow managed to remain in the game until the final
buzzer, before eventually succumbing to the Cardinals, 78-76 in
front of 11,978 people at Pauley Pavilion.

Trailing by 10 with 7:07 to play, sophomore J.R. Henderson was
fouled by Louisville’s Damion Dantzler, and in the process,
Cardinal head coach Denny Crum was assessed with a technical foul.
The Bruins converted all four free throws to cut the lead to six,
but turned the ball over on the ensuing inbound pass.

UCLA pulled to within four with 6:17 remaining, but DeJuan Wheat
– who scored a game-high 25 points – hit a trey from 21 feet on
Louisville’s next possession to kill the Bruin run.

Louisville (14-6) hit 12 three-pointers on the afternoon, thanks
in large part to 6-foot-7-inch senior Brian Kiser, who scored a
career-high 20 points and was 6-8 from beyond the three-point
arc.

It was Kiser’s sixth trey of the game, however, that put the
nail in the Bruins’ coffin.

Embarking on a 10-2 run sparked by Charles O’Bannon’s layin at
1:19, UCLA muscled its way back into the game after Toby Bailey
followed Kris Johnson’s missed layup with a monstrous two-handed
slam. With 35 seconds on the clock, O’Bannon stole the ball and
converted a two-handed jam of his own off the break that put the
Bruins back into the lead, 76-75.

But following a Louisville time out, the Cardinals looked
outside to Kiser, who hit a 24-footer from the right side over
Johnson to seal the victory.

"We didn’t expect them to take that shot; we thought DeJuan was
going to take the last shot," said O’Bannon, who finished with a
team-high 23 points. "We didn’t expect them to run off a pick and
shoot a three at that time."

UCLA got off to a strong start, building a 14-point lead in the
first half behind O’Bannon’s 13 points. But it was the Bruins’ 13
turnovers in the first period that allowed the Cardinals to finish
the half on an 11-3 run that cut the UCLA lead to six, 39-33.

Louisville continued to capitalize on Bruin errors in the second
half, taking its first lead at 17:26 after Wheat passed it off to
Dantzler, who finished the play with a thunderous slam dunk.

The Bruin deficit grew to as much as 13 in the second half,
which included a stretch where UCLA missed four consecutive free
throws.

UCLA shot 54.9 percent from the field, higher than its
NCAA-leading season average. But it was nullified by Louisville’s
52.7 field goal percentage, and the Bruins anemic 1-6 performance
from behind the three-point line was no match for Louisville’s
12-25 clip.

"We played hard in spots, certainly in the middle of the first
half and again at the end. I was proud of how we came back,"
Harrick said. "But they played very, very well today and they
deserve the credit."

Before Saturday’s matchup, there were few who gave Louisville
any credit at all. Missing four starters due to injury, academic
ineligibility and an NCAA investigation, Crum didn’t have much hope
of getting his first-ever victory in Pauley Pavilion.

"This is not an easy place to win when you’re full strength, let
alone when you’re missing a few bodies," Crum said. "But these guys
think they can win and that’s half the battle itself.

"I couldn’t be happier or prouder of our team. We lost the whole
front line, but these kids gave maximum effort. We hung in there at
the end and Brian (Kiser) just hit a big shot for us."

ANDREW SCHOLER/Daily Bruin

With :04 on the clock and his team trailing 76-75, Louisville’s
Brian Kiser tickled the twine with this three-pointer to win the
game for the Cardinals.

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