Wednesday, November 13, 1996
M. HOOPS:
Under new leadership, UCLA defeats Athletes, 114-79By Hye
Kwon
Daily Bruin Staff
For an exhibition game that had absolutely no bearing on the
regular season, the UCLA men’s basketball team’s 114-79 win against
the traveling Athletes in Action on Tuesday night had an unusually
high level of excitement.
For starters, Bruin starting point guard Cameron Dollar gave the
Bruins a big scare with 3:44 remaining in the first half. After
bumping knees with guard Erwin Claggett, Dollar lay down on the
Pauley Pavilion floor moaning in pain. For the next 10 seconds or
so, the 5,499 on-lookers watched Dollar in silence, wondering if
the Bruins had suffered their second devastating blow of the
week.
Fortunately for UCLA, Dollar sustained only a mild bruise on the
knee and later returned to make a solid contribution in the second
half.
"We had enough losses in one week," UCLA interim head coach
Steve Lavin said. "The last thing I want to do was lose our
starting quarterback  our Joe Montana, our Troy Aikman."
UCLA center Jelani McCoy also raised eyebrows at Pauley when he
picked up two technical fouls in a span of 10 minutes and, as a
result, was ejected from the game.
The first technical came in the early going when McCoy hung on
the rim after completing an alley-oop dunk. In his nine minutes of
action on the floor, McCoy threw down several emphatic dunks,
making it clear that there was little anyone could do to stop him
in the paint.
However, with 6:35 left in the first half, McCoy had to leave
the game with 14 points and four rebounds when he picked up his
second technical foul of the night.
"(The referee) didn’t give me a warning. He just T’d me up,"
McCoy said. "Something was said and I was in the vicinity. I guess
(the referee) thought it was me since he gave me one earlier. Oh,
well. We still won the game."
Despite the fact that McCoy’s actions led to a six-point play by
the Athletes, Lavin said in the post-game interview that he wasn’t
too upset with what transpired on the court.
"Ideally, you don’t want your players to pick up technical
fouls, but I thought that it wasn’t as though he was demonstrative,
out of control or reckless," Lavin said. "I thought a year ago …
this would have led to some animated antics and maybe I wouldn’t
have been able to talk to him.
"I was encouraged just by the way he handled the fact that he
wasn’t going to play in the second half. He wasn’t feeling sorry
for himself, he was pulling for his teammates."
McCoy, who was known last year for his loud screams following
slam dunks, agrees with Lavin’s assessment.
"Last year, the jersey would probably have come off and (there
would have been) a lot of screaming and ranting," McCoy said.
"Coach Lavin’s been stressing the championship attitude, so I just
kept thinking about that."
The Bruins, who were led by J.R. Henderson’s 25 points, had a
firm control of the game from the get-go. UCLA’s play impressed
Athletes in Action head coach Chuck Badger, who has already seen
the likes of Indiana and Cincinnati this year.
"It was a dunk drill," Badger said. "Their defensive pressure is
better than most teams we’ve faced."
JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
UCLA’s Cameron Dollar (No. 5) recovers from a first-half knee
injury to help the Bruins to victory over the Athletes in Action,
114-79, at Pauley Pavilion on Tuesday.