Bruins soar past Beavers with poise to secure win
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 3, 2002 9:00 p.m.
 ELI GILL Senior center Dan Gadzuric
punished the defense of Oregon State. UCLA 70
Oregon State 48
By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
CORVALLIS, Ore. “”mdash; This was a much different game.
The looks on the Bruins’ faces after their 70-48 rout of
Oregon State said it all. Instead of dejection, there was a smile.
Instead of disbelief, there was confidence.
“UCLA executed,” said Cedric Bozeman, “to
perfection.”
“I thought our kids played with a lot of poise
offensively,” UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said.
“Defensively we got back to putting our kids in positions
where they can be successful.”
The Beavers’ slower pace suited the Bruins much better. It
gave UCLA (15-6, 7-4 Pac-10) time to set their half-court offense,
and it forced the Beavers (10-11, 3-8) to go up against the
Bruins’ set defense.
“We shared the ball and kept our defense tight,”
said Dan Gadzuric. “They missed shots, we made ours. It
happens.”
After giving up 10 three-pointers and a 56.7 percent shooting
clip to Oregon on Thursday, then-No. 13 UCLA held Oregon State to a
dismal 35.3 percent clip, and just 29 percent in the first
half.
Dan Gadzuric played like the imposing center that he is, leaving
his tentativeness behind in Eugene. The 6-foot-11 senior led all
scorers at the end of the first half with 12 points and chipped in
six more in the second period.
Gadzuric, who turned 24 on Saturday, posted up against Philip
Ricci most of the night. Oregon State’s 6-7 forward
didn’t present much of a challenge for the Bruins’
tallest player, as was evident with 6:51 to go in the game. After
catching a rocket from Ryan Walcott, Gadzuric looked both ways,
bumped up against Ricci, turned around and easily scored two for
his team, putting the Bruins up 59-41.
Gadzuric stayed in the game, and the Bruins walked away with a
win largely because they followed Lavin’s recipe for success
““ taking their time on offense and making the team beat them
from the perimeter.
“I felt like we had control of the whole game,”
Bozeman said. “We lulled them into the mode of taking threes,
and it worked to our advantage.”
UCLA left the three-point shot wide open the whole game,
prompting the Beavers to take a school-record 32 attempts from
beyond the arc. They would convert just seven, leaving them with
just a 23.5 percent completion rate.
“It wasn’t a lack of effort,” Oregon State
head coach Ritchie McKay said. “We lost confidence shooting
the basketball. We lost our confidence defending and the two
combined equaled UCLA by 22.”
The Beavers’ three-point shot was so errant that even when
they spotted up, the Bruins didn’t even flinch as the shot
went off. Most often the ball would clank off the edge of the rim
into the hands of a waiting Bruin rebounder.
The Bruins needed a game like this. They needed a chance to get
their confidence back, to remember what it feels like to have a
strong offensive night, to stop the other team from scoring at
will. True, UCLA was up against an inferior Oregon State team, but
that doesn’t always guarantee an easy outing for the
Bruins.
This game was kind of a tune-up for the Bruins, who host No. 23
USC on Wednesday. It was the kind of game where Barnes, who started
for the Bruins after experiencing a neck spasm Friday morning,
rocketed a pass from baseline to baseline over a confused-looking
Dijon Thompson and out of bounds. It didn’t matter because at
that point the Bruins held a cushy 17-point lead.
“It shows that we can bounce back,” said Rico Hines.
“It’s always tough to win up here. Us blowing them out
after we got blown out shows the character of our team. It helps
build confidence.”
Confidence in the fact that Jason Kapono is still their leading
scorer, finishing with 19 points, and going 8-for-12 from the
field. Confidence that they can, even with only three
three-pointers. Confidence, according to Hines, that they can beat
USC.
“Both OSU and USC run a lot of offensive sets, so the fact
that we were able to play well against (that kind of offense)
tonight shows that we can do well against USC,” Hines
said.
After Saturday’s victory, the Bruins have sole possession
of fourth place in the Pac-10. With USC making a house call to
Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday, the Bruins have to start making this
different kind of game habit.
