Beavers fail to fell UCLA big men

  DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior guard
Earl Watson goes up for an unsuccessful shot
attempt in the Bruins’ 67-40 win over Oregon State last night.
UCLA 67 OSU 40

By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff

UCLA might not be the best basketball team in the country, but
when it comes to dealing with adversity, they are at the top of the
list.

On the heels of Wednesday’s rumors that Bruin coach Steve
Lavin might have committed an NCAA violation and reports that two
players had lackluster academic fall quarters, the Bruins responded
like they always do when the heat is on ““ with a victory.

The Bruins (11-5, 5-1 Pac-10) defeated a heavily undermanned
Oregon State team (8-10, 2-4) 67-40 in Pauley Pavilion Thursday
night.

“We’ve been through it all. Nothing really fazes
us,” said forward Jason Kapono, who rebounded from a
disappointing career-low four points last week at Arizona to post a
game-high 19 points.

“It’s not like we’re going to be bothered by
controversy or speculation. It’s one of those things that we
know how to focus. We go into practices and games and just
play.”

The Bruins took control of the game with a dominating second
half in which they routinely pounded the ball inside against the
Beavers’ short post men.

OSU, whose tallest starter was 6-foot-9, had no answer when the
Bruins began to feed their big men in the paint.

UCLA center Dan Gadzuric did most of the damage. Playing his
best game in more than three weeks, the 6-foot-11 junior scored the
Bruins’ first nine points of the second half.

Three baskets came by way of thunderous double-fisted jams.
Gadzuric finished the game with 14 points and four rebounds.

“To beat UCLA, you’ve got to have an inside
presence,” said Oregon State head coach Ritchie McKay.
“You’ve got to play a perfect game against
them.”

While Oregon State had no answer for Gadzuric on the defensive
end, they had trouble finding the basket on offense.

With the Beavers shooting just 34 percent in the second half,
UCLA went on a 20-4 run midway in the second to stretch its lead to
51-27, and never looked back.

“I was embarrassed,” McKay said. “We’ve
got to play with more pride.”

After saying it would take “a miracle” for him to
play on Thursday, Bruin point guard Earl Watson had his name called
in the starting lineup for the 113th straight game.

Watson, who injured his right hip and back in a nasty fall
against Arizona State, labored his way through a game-high 30
minutes. He sat out Monday’s practice and was able to
practice just 40 minutes the rest of the week.

“My back felt great,” he said. “There were
some times it felt tight but this was the most I went all
week.”

While he said he felt no pain, you could tell it wasn’t
the same Watson. He wasn’t able to pressure the ball on
defense as well as he usually does and had an uncharacteristically
difficult shooting night.

The senior was just one of seven from the field, finishing with
only three points.

“It was a gut-check performance because I’ve never
seen him hurt to this degree in terms of the way he’s kind of
laboring through the game,” Lavin said.

Watson was disappointed in his play.

“I’m upset,” he said. “I have to get my
rhythm back. I’m a perfectionist.”

“I know that I’m going to have

to be an offensive threat sometime down the line.”

After the contest, Lavin was proud in his team’s ability
to convincingly defeat an opponent that plays a slow, methodical
game.

The Beavers put a premium on shots. They prefer to swing the
ball four to five times a possession, milking most of the shot
clock.

“The kids showed a lot of maturity to play in a type of
game like this,” Lavin said. “Last year, this is the
game that would have came down to the last two minutes. But this
was similar to the Villanova game, where we were able to put
someone away.”

Lavin also has to be proud in his team’s ability to play
through distractions that seem to come on a weekly basis.

Two weeks ago, the Bruins responded to the Rick Pitino rumors
that swirled the campus with a 80-75 upset victory over No. 18
USC.