Edney goes above the rim in Bruins’ victory
Point guard’s slam dunk punctuates 91-78 win over Washington
State
By Randy Satterburg
Daily Bruin Staff
The No. 6 UCLA men’s basketball team made just under 75 percent
of its shots in a near-flawless first-half performance, opened up a
12-point halftime lead, and cruised to an easy 91-78 victory
against Washington State, Saturday in Pauley Pavilion, but one
single play leaps out above the rest as what will be best
remembered about this game.
Tyus Edney’s dunk.
Who knew he could do it?
"I’ve never seen him do it before," said Edney’s teammate of
four years, Ed O’Bannon.
"He kept telling me he could do that," UCLA head coach Jim
Harrick said.
At his listed height of 5 feet, 10 inches  with shoes, and
standing on a phone book or two  nobody expected to see Edney
of all people throw down a one-hand jam to put the exclamation
point on a feel-good victory, but that is exactly what
happened.
The Bruins used a 14-0 run at the start of the second-half to
take a commanding lead, 59-36, which later rose to a 30-point
margin when Charles O’Bannon stole the ball in UCLA’s full-court
press and spotted Edney streaking down the court.
O’Bannon dished to the Bruins’ point guard, who with a full head
of steam behind him took off strong with his left foot firmly
planted midway into the key, and kept rising until he was high
enough above the rim to dunk with his right hand, giving the rim a
little tug on the way down for added drama.
Game, set, match. The crowd and UCLA bench went into
hysteria.
"I don’t know what he ate before the game," Ed O’Bannon said,
"but I wish I had the same thing."
Said Edney, "I’ve been up there close but I’ve never dunked
before in a game," Edney said. "It surprised me a little too, but
it felt real good."
Edney’s aerial antics nearly overshadowed one of the finer
outings of the season for UCLA, which improved to 9-1 (3-1 in the
Pac-10). The Bruins made 22 of 30 shots in the first half (73.3%),
held the Cougars (6-5 overall, 2-2 Pac-10) under 45 percent
shooting for the game, and had 12 different players contribute
points.
"That was maybe as good as we have played all year," Harrick
said. "I thought we defended real well, executed our offense real
well, and got a lot of things done. We really wanted to put
together 40 minutes, and we did that."
UCLA was led by Ed O’Bannon (10 of 14 field goals) and George
Zidek, who chipped in with 20 points each.
Zidek, who before the game felt so weak from a two-week bout
with the flu that he considered asking Harrick to sit him out,
bounced back from an uncharacteristically poor shooting performance
Thursday night against Washington to make seven of 9 shots against
Washington State for a season-high 20 points.
"I felt even worse today, but I was taking my time and made my
shots," Zidek said. "(The illness) has been a nightmare
though."
Just as encouraging was another impressive outing from sophomore
Charles O’Bannon, who scored 19 points and made eight of 11 shots
against the Cougars on the heels of a team-high 18 points Thursday
night.
"Charles had a real nice weekend for us," Harrick said.
O’Bannon, playing with five stitches under his eye from a cut
suffered against the Huskies, was especially active getting out on
the wing after Washington State scored, where he converted several
transition baskets.
Many of those buckets came courtesy of Edney, who missed only
one shot in scoring eight points, but was far busier dishing out a
season-high 11 assists  when he wasn’t assaulting the
backboard.
The big lead allowed UCLA to clear the bench in the second half
and give Edney and his suddenly springy legs some much deserved
rest. Freshman omm’A Givens responded with seven points, four
rebounds and two blocked shots in nine minutes of action off the
bench.
The significance of UCLA’s timely coming of age was not lost on
Charles O’Bannon.
"We have a tough road trip ahead (to Arizona) and having a good
game like this gives us a lot of confidence going in," he said.