Questionable officiating leads UCLA to narrow loss
Referee reverses dunk, three-pointer in 67-66 decision
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Staff
STANFORD – Stanford point guard Brevin Knight had 19 points and
nine assists, but the most valuable player in the Cardinal’s 67-66
victory over UCLA Saturday at Maples Pavilion might have been
referee Bob Garibaldi.
It was Garibaldi whose wishy-washy calls led to the removal from
the scoreboard of three of the Bruins’ second-half points. Of
course, three points would have been the difference in such a close
contest, but it was more the timing of Garibaldi’s ineptness that
led to UCLA’s downfall.
Just when it seemed that the Bruins (16-6 overall, 9-2 Pacific
10) were building momentum, Garibaldi teased them by putting points
on the scoreboard and then taking them off.
"We knew it was going to be a close game, but then you take a
basket away from us and we end up losing by one – it kind of took a
little bit of air out of us," said center Jelani McCoy, who
finished with nine points, but would have had 11 if his two-handed
dunk early in the second half had remained on the scoreboard.
With just under 16 minutes to go in the game, McCoy took an
inbound pass from Charles O’Bannon as most of Stanford’s players
milled about the half court line. With no defensive pressure, McCoy
jammed the ball home for a 44-42 Bruin lead.
But Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery flung himself at
Garibaldi, arguing that there should have been a television
time-out before the inbound play, and the points were taken away
from UCLA.
"What happened was the (scorer’s) bench called for the TV
time-out, so our guys were all standing there waiting for the
official to call it," Montgomery said. "The official gave the UCLA
guy the ball and they threw it for a dunk. Well, that just can’t
happen. We were reacting at what should have been a time-out; the
official shouldn’t have handed them the ball, and so they made the
right call."
UCLA head coach Jim Harrick wasn’t so sure.
"The official made the play, gave him the ball and it was live
action," Harrick said. "They were saying that they were trying to
get his attention to call the time out, but I would be interested
to know the real ruling on that instead of an interpretation – I
don’t know that anybody knew the rule.
"The only correction an official can make after the ball is
inbounded is a clock error, and there was no clock error
there."
In any case, the Bruins were stripped of a basket, and Stanford
seized the opportunity to start a 12-2 scoring run that left the
score in its favor at 54-44 with 12 minutes remaining.
The last four points in the run came after a technical foul was
called on Harrick, who became upset when referees wouldn’t score
the two points after O’Bannon was fouled by Darren Allaway and then
made the ensuing basket.
Harrick should have been happy; at least in this instance, the
officials didn’t score the basket and then take points away.
That would happen again with about four minutes left, when Toby
Bailey hit a three-pointer to bring UCLA within four points, only
to have Garibaldi stop play, change his mind and rule the basket a
two-pointer.
"I thought I was behind the line, and I saw the guy put the
three-point sign up, so I thought we were right back into it,"
Bailey said. "I don’t know how to explain it; it’s just all
psychological when, instead of giving us the two-pointer and us
dealing with that, they give us three and then take one away. It
was depressing."
Still, UCLA fought back over the last three minutes and closed
the gap to one when an O’Bannon steal led to a three-point play by
J.R. Henderson, who led his team with 19 points and nine
rebounds.
Henderson was fouled by David Harbour on the way to the basket,
and when he sank the ensuing free throw with 46 seconds left, it
appeared that the Bruins were virtually guaranteed another
possession and a shot at winning or tying the game.
But Knight, who hadn’t grabbed an offensive board for Stanford
all game long, ran down the long rebound of his missed
three-pointer, and after a time-out, the Cardinal (15-5, 8-3) was
able to run out the clock.
The loss was especially hard for UCLA to take because the Bruins
played their most solid game in weeks, shooting 50 percent from the
field, 93.8 percent from the foul line and committing 13 turnovers
– well below their season average of 18.6.
Stanford, meanwhile, was held to a 41.9 percent shooting clip,
and sharp shooting guard Dion Cross was held to five points on
1-for-7 shooting.Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu