M. hoops shoot Ducks out of water

M. hoops shoot Ducks out of water

Bruins turn a seemingly brutal loss into a win with eight
minutes left

By Scott Yamaguchi

Daily Bruin Staff

EUGENE, Ore. — It couldn’t have been happening again.

Not another series of mental breakdowns, not another nationally
televised blowout loss, and certainly not another loss here at a
sold out McArthur Court, where the UCLA men’s basketball team had
lost to Oregon in each of its last two tries.

And yet it was happening. Eight minutes to go in Saturday’s
crucial Pacific 10 matchup, and the Bruins found themselves down by
13 points, on the verge of a devastating defeat.

Something had to give.

"This was just one of those games where, as a basketball team,
we had to make up our minds, whether we wanted to settle for
mediocrity, or whether we wanted to play like UCLA, the defending
national champions going into the tournament and finishing up the
Pac-10," UCLA guard Kris Johnson said. "Are we going to go in there
as a train, or are we going to go in there as a little pinto,
squeaking out a first or a second round loss?"

Finally, UCLA decided to go in as a train, and the Bruins
barreled over Oregon along the way with a 24-5 scoring run in the
last eight minutes that left the final score at 77-71, and left the
Ducks scratching their heads.

"We didn’t play a whole game," Oregon point guard Kenya Wilkins
said. "We didn’t suck it up at the end. We were tired, but I don’t
think that was the main thing. I can’t figure out quite what it
was."

For the Bruins (21-7 overall, 14-2 Pac-10), who clinched a share
of the conference championship with the victory, the answer was
relatively easy: defense.

Offensively, they had played a decent game in the first 30
minutes, shooting 50 percent from the field in the first half while
holding the Ducks (15-13, 8-9) to 43 percent. UCLA even led, 22-16,
10 minutes into the game when senior Kevin Dempsey drained a three
point shot from the top of the key.

But things went awry from there. The Bruins came up empty on
their next eight possessions, committing six turnovers in the span
of four minutes, and Oregon capitalized with a 15-0 scoring run
that left the Ducks in front, 31-22, with just under six minutes to
go.

"We weren’t as together as we should have been in the early part
of the game," UCLA guard Toby Bailey said. "We were pointing the
finger at everybody else."

The Bruins would come back, and when Bailey converted a
three-point play a minute and half before the break, the score was
tied at 33. Once again, however, UCLA’s streak of good luck was
stopped. Oregon’s Jamar Curry nailed a 19-foot jumper to put his
team up by two, and after a forced shot by Bailey, the Ducks had
possession with 40 seconds to go. Strong defense by the Bruins
nearly forced a shot clock violation, but a kick-ball with two
seconds left on the shot clock gave Oregon the final possession of
the half, and a 15-foot baseline jumper by little-used Mike Carson
at the buzzer left the score at 39-35.

In the second half, Oregon forward Kyle Milling, who had his way
with UCLA’s big men on the way to 10 first-half points, was shut
down by Bruin center Jelani McCoy, and he finished the game with
just 12 points.

Nevertheless, the momentum the Ducks had built in the final 40
seconds of the first half carried through the break, and they
opened the second half with a 9-0 run of transition buckets and
outside shots.

The lead hit a maximum of 14 points with just under 15 minutes
to go, and each time UCLA appeared to be making a run, Oregon came
back with a three-point shot.

Bruin forward Charles O’Bannon scored nine straight points for
his team in one stretch, and his trey with 12:16 left closed the
gap to eight points.

"I wanted to step up and become the leader that I was supposed
to be at the beginning of the season," O’Bannon said.

But Oregon’s Terrick Brown answered O’Bannon’s run with one of
his three treys, and when Jamal Lawrence hit one of his four
three-pointers with 8:41 remaining, the lead was back to 13.

Then, during the official timeout at the eight minute mark, UCLA
finally made the decision to step up its defensive intensity and
make a run.

"Whenever we get down, we know we’re coming back, that we’re on
the comeback trail," Bruin guard Cameron Dollar said. "We just take
a deep breath, relax and then you look at the score, and whoa,
we’re back in it. That’s how it should be, and we’re becoming more
and more able to do that."

Oregon came up empty on its first four possessions after the
timeout, and the gap was narrowed to 66-61 after Johnson fed Bailey
for an easy layin at the 5:19 mark. Wilkins hit an off-balance
8-footer to push the lead back to seven, but the Ducks would go
four more possessions without scoring, and when J.R. Henderson sank
an 8-foot baseline jumper with 2:21 to go, UCLA had its first lead
of the second half, 69-68.

The score would be tied at 71, and the Bruins called a timeout
with 50 seconds left to design an offensive set. According to UCLA
head coach Jim Harrick, the play was supposed to go to Henderson or
Johnson. But Oregon denied the two options, and Bailey drove into
the lane, where he hung up a 4-foot jumper that found its way
through the net.

Lawrence missed on Oregon’s ensuing possession, and the Ducks
were forced to foul Johnson, who sealed the game with a pair of
free throws with 14 seconds left.

"Defense did it," UCLA head coach Jim Harrick said. "Our defense
played and played, and kept playing and kept playing, and we just
forgot about everything, all the world problems of hunger and
strife and war and started playing. And when we play, we’ve shown
sparks of being a real good team."

FRED HE/Daily Bruin

With 50 seconds remaining in the game, guard Toby Bailey hit a
floating 4-foot jumper that put the Bruins ahead 73-71, a lead from
which they never looked back.

"Are we going to go in there as a train, or are we going to go
in there as a little pinto?"

Kris Johnson

UCLA Men’s Basketball

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