Bruins grab last-minute win over Arizona

  EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior Dan
Gadzuric slams home one of his team leading 22 points in
UCLA’s thrilling upset victory over Arizona 77-76.
UCLA 77 Arizona 76

By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

There is no “we” in team.

But there should be.

If anyone could make a case for it, it’s the No. 20 UCLA
men’s basketball team after its 77-76 clutch win over the No.
9 Arizona Wildcats in front of 11,960 at Pauley Pavilion.

Week in and week out, the Bruins stress the importance of Dan
Gadzuric dominating the paint. Of Jason Kapono finding his rhythm.
Of smart ball-handling. Of not extending themselves too much on
defense.

All this is fancy language for good old-fashioned team work.

That’s what won the game.

It wasn’t just that Gadzuric finished with 22 points and
16 rebounds. It was the fact that after the Villanova loss on
Saturday, during which Gadzuric scored only five points, head coach
Steve Lavin stressed the fact that the Bruins needed to find their
6-foot-11 center inside more often. That was the game plan going
into Thursday’s game. And the Bruins responded.

Gadzuric racked up 13 points in his 18 first-half minutes.
According to Billy Knight, Gadzuric even called for the ball at the
outset of the contest ““ something he has never done
before.

It was a different kind of game. This time the offensive miscues
at key points of the game didn’t cost the Bruins the win.

Even though UCLA didn’t regain the lead at 74-73 until
1:03 left in the game, after trailing for over 31 minutes, they
were still in it at the end.

It was all thanks to Matt Barnes’ sharp passing ability,
thanks to Gadzuric’s unwillingness to relinquish a
rebound.

It was because of the inside play of the senior duo that Kapono
was open with 19 seconds on the clock.

Barnes had rebounded a missed shot by Ryan Walcott. The Wildcats
pounced in the paint, and Kapono was all alone. Barnes kicked it
out to the Bruins’ sharp-shooter behind the three-point line.
The shot hit nothing but net, putting UCLA ahead 77-76 and
ultimately winning the game.

“I didn’t have time to think about it,” Kapono
said about his final shot. “Anytime the game comes down to
the last play, you play it like you see it. They had swarmed Dan
and Matt, and Matt is such a great passer.”

Just 17 seconds before, Gardner had hit his seventh
three-pointer on the night, giving Arizona a one-point lead with 36
seconds to go. After Kapono’s three, the ‘Cats had a
chance for one last shot.

Gardner inbounded the ball to Luke Walton, just inside the key.
The play was designed for Gardner. But he wasn’t open. Walton
dished it inside to Channing Frye, who put up the shot in the
waning seconds of the game. It went off the backboard, onto the
rim, rattled around…and came back out, soaring into the pack of
players waiting underneath the basket. It was a blur of navy and
white, and just before the referee could call a jump ball, the
buzzer sounded.

“The last shot was a great one,” Arizona head coach
Lute Olson said. “Channing Frye caught it and shot it exactly
the way he should have. If that one went in, we’d be talking
about a great win right now.”

But it wasn’t just about the final 19 seconds. The game
was tight from the eight-minute mark on, with no more than four
points separating the two teams and Arizona leading until 1:03 to
go after a Kapono three-pointer.

UCLA (17-7, 9-4 Pac-10) had been within one point three times
within the final seven minutes and even tied the game at 65-65 with
5:34 on the clock. But as soon as the Bruins were within breathing
distance of the lead, they would stumble over themselves, and
Arizona (17-7, 10-4) would capitalize.

Still, the Bruins, as a team, would have the final say.

Gadzuric and Barnes out-rebounded Arizona 31-28 on their own.
The rest of the Bruins chipped in 14, bringing the glass-cleaning
total to 45 for UCLA overall. Both Gadzuric and Barnes finished
with double-doubles, while Kapono and Knight added 22 and 12 points
of their own.