Monday, January 13, 1997
M. HOOPS:
Johnson, O’Bannon save team’s road trip from disasterBy Hye
Kwon
Daily Bruin Staff
DALY CITY, CA — After Thursday night’s debacle against
Stanford, it looked as if the Bruins were doomed for a worse time
on the road than Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels had on their way to
Aspen, Colorado. The wrong turn into Nebraska and the frigid ride
on the moped for the duo from "Dumb and Dumber" seem like mere
inconveniences compared to the humiliation UCLA had to swallow in
front of a boisterous Cardinal crowd.
Much to the credit of the Bruins, whose locker room after the
Stanford game resembled a funeral, they managed to salvage the Bay
Area trip as best they could, earning a hard-fought 64-56 victory
against California on Saturday afternoon.
"This was a huge win just to keep us going," said Kris Johnson,
who nailed down the win for UCLA with four free throws at the end
of the game. "After the 70-point loss … just coming out with a
split was (good) for our confidence."
In actuality, it was a 48-point loss to the Cardinal, but you
can hardly blame Johnson for having a fuzzy memory. After the
margin grew past 40 points, not many people in attendance at Maples
Pavilion could be spotted keeping their score cards updated.
At the Cow Palace on Saturday, the atmosphere was quite
different  and it wasn’t because of the country western theme
in the arena often reserved for hosting rodeos. Unlike last
Thursday, it was UCLA (8-4 overall, 3-1 Pacific 10) which was
making its opponents’ faces red, while capitalizing on the
opportunities that it was given.
In particular, it was Johnson and Charles O’Bannon, who took
care of business in the second half. Johnson, whose career-high 36
points came against the Bears last year, scored 11 of UCLA’s 13
points in a six-minute stretch. His low-post dominance over taller
Bear players solidified the Bruin lead and, from then on, it was a
matter of hitting the free throws.
"I thought Kris Johnson really stepped up for us," UCLA head
coach Steve Lavin said. "We’ve been kind of waiting for him to have
a breakthrough game. And I think we saw what he’s capable of
doing."
O’Bannon, on the other hand, gobbled up rebound after rebound as
Cal was missing shot after shot. The guard tandem of Ed Gray and
Randy Duck went 5-of-18 from the field in the second half, and as a
team, Cal shot an abysmal 25.8 percent. Meanwhile, O’Bannon ended
up with a career-high 16 rebounds, 13 of which came after the
intermission.
After the game, O’Bannon reflected on the Bruins’ bittersweet
trip to the Bay Area, which dropped the team into a second place
tie in the Pac-10.
"If you’re in this game long enough, there are going to be some
lopsided victories as well as some lopsided losses. And Thursday,
it was time for our loss," O’Bannon said. "We just have to regroup
from that, bond together stronger as a team and play the way we’re
capable of playing. We’re happy to get out of (the Bay Area) with a
split. It gives us a lot of confidence that we can play on the road
against some of the better teams in the league."