M. hoops blocks out Sun in Pauley



February 20, 1996

M. hoops blocks out Sun in Pauley

By Scott Yamaguchi

Daily Bruin Staff

What’s the best way to bring your slumping freshman center out
of his midseason lull?

If you’re the UCLA men’s basketball team, all you have to do is
bring on Arizona State – the seventh-place team in the Pacific 10
Conference that starts no player taller than 6-foot-8-inches.

That’s what the Bruins did Saturday in Pauley Pavilion, and
Jelani McCoy – who raced out of the gates at the start of the
season but struggled in recent weeks – put together one of his
finest performances of the year.

The 6-foot-10-inch shot-blocking terror had a team high of 19
points and 12 rebounds, his fifth double-double of the season. He
also rejected six Arizona State shots, bringing his season total to
79 and breaking David Greenwod’s Pac-10 record of 76, set in
1979.

It all added up to an 87-70 UCLA win which, when coupled with
Stanford’s last-second loss at Oregon, gives the Bruins (18-6, 11-2
Pac-10) a two-game lead with just five games remaining in their
quest for a second-consecutive league championship.

"When Jelani plays like that, we’re a very difficult team to
contend with," UCLA head coach Jim Harrick said. "That’s the way he
was playing early in the season, and really, he opened the first
five (conference) games like this, dominating rebounding. That’s a
good game for him."

McCoy made nine of his 10 shot attempts, a clip that will only
help his league-leading 66 percent shooting average. In fact, as a
team, UCLA made 59.3 percent of its shots, which will only help the
Bruins’ NCAA-leading mark of 52.9.

They also held the Sun Devils, normally a 43.5 percent shooting
team, to 36.2 percent from the field and out-rebounded them,
38-31.

But with Arizona State’s Ron Riley and Jeremy Veal, who combined
for 52 points, connecting on long-range shots early in the second
half, the Bruins actually found themselves down by a point, 51-50,
after Okeme Oziwo laid one in for the Sun Devils with 12 1Ž2
minutes left in the game.

It appeared that UCLA had broken the game open early in the
first half, when a pair of free throws by Charles O’Bannon sparked
a 14-5 scoring run.

O’Bannon, who had 10 points at halftime, capped the run with a
steal and dunk that brought the score to 24-16 and prompted a
20-second time out by the Sun Devils (9-12, 4-8).

Riley scored the next eight points for the Sun Devils on a pair
of free throws and a pair of three-pointers, closing the lead to
five points. But Arizona State would score only one field goal over
the final six minutes of the half, and O’Bannon’s three-pointer
with 14 seconds left gave the Bruins a 42-29 lead heading into the
locker room.

"I thought we played OK, just probably good enough to win in
most situations," Harrick said. "I’m hoping I don’t use the words,
‘We get bored,’ but it looked like we just quit playing."

Harrick was referring to the first six minutes of the second
half, when the Sun Devils staged a furious comeback that actually
put them in the lead. Riley started the run with a three-pointer on
ASU’s first possession, then followed it with a baseline drive and
dunk.

O’Bannon answered with a pair of free throws, but a
three-pointer by Veal and a putback dunk by Sun Devil center Rodger
Farrington shrunk UCLA’s lead to 44-39 and caused enough concern
that Harrick called a timeout with 17:14 to go.

J.R. Henderson, who finished with 17 points and eight rebounds,
hit a layin coming out of the timeout, but Veal nailed two more
treys – within 30 seconds of each other – and two minutes later,
Arizona State was in the lead after Oziwo’s layin.

"We play hard," ASU head coach Bill Frieder said. "We don’t
quit. If teams get lackadaisical against us, we come back because
we don’t quit."

Nor did McCoy, who quickly restored order with an authoritative
dunk on which he was fouled by Lenny Holly. McCoy missed the
ensuing free throw, but more than made up for it over the next six
minutes, leading the Bruins on a 15-0 scoring run. McCoy had eight
points in the run, from which Arizona State never recovered.

"People have been talking about Jelani being weak, and that kind
of got to him," UCLA guard Cameron Dollar said. "He just stepped up
his game – he’s playing really well."

Dollar, who had a career-high 14 points coming in off the bench
in Thursday’s win over Arizona, was in the starting lineup for the
first time since the Cal State Fullerton game Nov. 28. He had five
steals, five points and four rebounds in 27 minutes of action, but
he also committed seven of UCLA’s 19 turnovers.

"It wasn’t like I was trying to over-do it, but this is a time
where you just learn," Dollar said. "And in the process of turning
it over, I pull that out, so those things can be corrected next
game. It was good, trial and error, for me to get back in there
doing that."

FRED HE/Daily Bruin

Jelani McCoy, back to his usual self, dominated the Sun
Devils.

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