WASHINGTON “”mdash; It was as though they had just won the Miss
America pageant, an Academy Award and the NCAA Championship all at
once.
The Bruins’ celebration after pulling off a 71-70 victory
on Saturday was worthy of any of those awards, except all they
accomplished was a victory over mediocre Georgetown (10-9, 2-6 Big
East) in front of 14,227 at the MCI Center.
“It feels so good,” center Ryan Hollins said.
“Right now, I can’t explain things. It’s been so
long. And Georgetown, on national TV. We are all so high right
now.”
It took the Bruins 39 minutes and 55 seconds to seal the win,
but, unlike their previous nine games ““ all losses ““ at
least they sealed it.
With UCLA down 70-69 with five seconds remaining, Georgetown
guard Tony Bethel was called for a ticky-tack foul on Cedric
Bozeman after both clamored for a loose ball on the Bruins’
end of the floor.
The Hoyas were in the double penalty, so Bozeman got two shots
to try to tie or win it.
A career 39.1 percent free-throw shooter, Bozeman, facing a
raucous Georgetown student section, drained both to win it for UCLA
(5-14, 2-8 Pac-10).
“I just looked at the ball, dribbled it, spun it, and let
it go,” Bozeman said. “Free throws had been kind of
tough on me. I wasn’t always taking my time.”
But with as much calm and poise as he’s shown since he
arrived at UCLA, the often-criticized point guard came through with
his most important free throws of the season.
“He has some kind of Joe Montana cool,” UCLA head
coach Steve Lavin said.
But Bozeman wouldn’t have gotten the chance to be the hero
if not for some help from his teammates.
The game’s decisive point came with 4:08 left in the first
half when Georgetown center Michael Sweetney picked up his third
foul, hacking forward Jason Kapono while he was driving to the
basket.
Sweetney, a 6-foot-8, 260-pound monster in the middle, is the
type of inside presence that has been able to dominate the Bruins
all season.
But limited by foul trouble all game, he played only 21 minutes
and scored just 10 points. And for most of those he couldn’t
even play aggressively on defense because of his foul
situation.
“We were just trying to get the ball out of his hands as
quickly as possible, and it worked,” point guard Ryan Walcott
said. “He got into foul trouble.”
With the paint wide open, Hollins was able to dominate inside,
scoring 12 points, including four dunks, in the first half alone.
By halftime, the freshman had already set a career high for
points.
And for the game, UCLA was able to outscore Georgetown 38-20 in
the paint.
“This is big for us,” Hollins said. “We lacked
post presence before.”
UCLA was up 38-32 at the break, and extended the lead to 49-41
with 12 minutes remaining.
But with Hollins stuck on the bench with three fouls, Georgetown
went on an 8-0 run to tie the game at 49. The Hoyas were able to
capitalize on inside layups in transition and the hot hand of
forward Brandon Bowman, who finished with 13 points.
“We weren’t worried,” said forward Andre
Patterson, who finished with eight points and seven rebounds.
“We knew we were going to win the whole time.”
After Bowman cooled off, both UCLA and Georgetown failed to
capitalize on each other’s turnovers.
There were six lead changes in the final 10 minutes of the game,
as no team sustained a run for more than four points.
A big three-pointer by guard Drew Hall put Georgetown up by one
with 36 seconds left, but those points weren’t enough to
overcome Bozeman’s free throws at the end.
“The change in expression on their faces didn’t
change until right as they got the win,” Lavin said of the
back-and-forth game down the stretch. UCLA finished the game with
nine steals, its highest total of the season.
Even though it was their first win in 10 games, the Bruins know
they still have to improve in order to be competitive in the
Pac-10.