UCLA shuts out Sun Devils

  BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Freshman
T.J. Cummings shoots the ball on his way to
scoring 18 points in the Bruins’ win over ASU on Friday night,
91-83. UCLA 91 Arizona State 83

By AJ Cadman

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

TEMPE, Ariz. “”mdash; The Bruins had been in this situation
before. But two years ago, the team was Oregon State in Corvallis.
Last year, it was Washington in Seattle.

But facing another surging and persistent squad that the Bruins
had been favored to defeat, UCLA (10-4, 4-0 Pac-10) outlasted
Pac-10 cellar-dweller Arizona State (8-8, 0-5) on Thursday night,
91-83 at Wells Fargo Arena.

In 37 minutes of play, Bruin sophomore Jason Kapono led all
scorers with 25 points and five rebounds to keep UCLA undefeated
and atop the conference standings.

Freshman T.J. Cummings had 18 points on seven of 10 shooting
from off the bench, and junior Matt Barnes had 17 points and nine
boards to help the Bruins win their sixth straight game. Arizona
State junior forward Awvee Storey had 21 points and 16 rebounds for
the Sun Devils, who are still searching for their first Pac-10
victory.

“I don’t know what it is, but road games always seem
to be weird (for us),” Kapono said. “You could be up a
lot one second and the next thing you know, you’re only up by
two. We needed to stay calm and focused and not worry about what
the referee calls.”

“Offensively, we were up pretty early,” UCLA head
coach Steve Lavin said. “Then (we had) kind of a collective
gut check. We looked a step slow.”

The Bruins inched out to a 6-0 lead in the game’s first
minute and a half before an impressive drive into the lane by ASU
senior guard Alton Mason got the Sun Devils on the scoreboard.
Early on, both teams seemed sluggish offensively. But a Matt Barnes
up-and-under jumper off the glass turned into a three-point play on
a foul by Storey, and gave UCLA a 14-7 advantage just five minutes
into the contest.

Next both teams traded baskets on consecutive possessions before
a Watson three-pointer with 13:23 left in the half to increase the
Bruin lead to 19-11. Less than three minutes later, he connected on
his second of three long-range field goals in the half, to up the
margin to 24-13.

ASU continued to pound the ball inside to sophomore Donnell
Knight and get second chance opportunities, thanks largely to
Storey’s rebounding. The Sun Devils got as close as seven
points in the first half on sophomore forward Shawn Redhage’s
putback, closing the gap to 37-30.

“Dribble penetration and points in the paint kept ASU in
the game,” Lavin said. “That’s what we had to
clean up (later), or else we lose this game.”

UCLA had a 9-0 stretch over the next three minutes to jump out
to a comfortable 46-30 lead heading into the intermission. But the
Bruins let their guard down just before the half as a Storey
three-pointer at the buzzer gave the home team only an 11-point
deficit.

The Sun Devils mounted a run at the onset of the second half
with ASU scoring the first eight points out of halftime to cut the
Bruin lead to 46-43. At 17:01, Storey grabbed a steal at the top of
the key and ran the length of the court for a fast-break jam to
pull Arizona State to within one at 48-47.

“We certainly were playing harder and better than we did
the last two ballgames,” Arizona State head coach Rob Evans
said. “I would tell them during the timeouts, “˜If you
get in the lane, shoot the basketball.’ We finally got them
doing that and we started making some baskets. I thought we got a
little more aggressive.”

The team looked to Watson to hoist the Bruins out of a near
disaster, and the senior co-captain got out into the open floor on
a fast break opportunity three and a half minutes into the second
half. With a seeming one-on-one battle to the bucket, Watson went
up strong to the basket and was fouled hard by ASU’s Tommy
Smith. UCLA’s leader lay motionless for a couple of minutes
and was helped off the floor. Watson suffered a bruised hip, and
returned briefly to the game to find he couldn’t run without
pain. He checked out of the game soon after with 16 points and
seven assists and did not return. It was the first time in his
career that he pulled himself out of a game.

“I really tried to go back in and I couldn’t even
run,” Watson said. “If they would have pressured me, I
wouldn’t have went anywhere. I decided to come out. I told
coach I couldn’t do it.”

But forward T.J. Cummings stepped up and kept the Bruins from
falling behind. He scored the next six points, the last four of
them on fast break layups. This helped UCLA to shoot 48 percent
from the floor and open up shots from the outside.

“Nothing he does surprises us,” Lavin said of
Cummings’ performance. “He has supreme confidence in
his abilities and the team has great confidence in him.”

Both teams engaged in a hard-fought battle for the next seven
minutes, trading buckets and elbows in a physical contest that had
52 fouls and five disqualifications. The Bruins got their biggest
lead in the second half on a Dan Gadzuric putback with 5:44
remaining to give them a 77-64 lead.

Arizona State put together one final rally late in the game.
Redhage hit two free throws with 1:42 to go, bringing the Sun
Devils within two at 79-73. Next a free throw contest broke out in
the home team’s effort to stretch the game.

UCLA went 12 for 14 in the final two minutes to seal the game
and assure the Bruins of at least a split in the desert as they
head into Saturday’s showdown with No. 17 Arizona.

“It was a gut check victory,” UCLA senior guard Ryan
Bailey said. “ASU was playing really well in the second half
and doing pretty much whatever they wanted.”