PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Dan
Ganzuric attempts to gain control of the ball in the game
starting tipoff.
By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff
GREENSBORO, N.C. – In UCLA’s last game of the regular season,
the Washington Huskies sent a message to the Bruins that they
needed to work on their defense.
After the No. 4-seeded Bruins’ (22-8) 61-48 victory over No.
13-seeded Hofstra (26-5) in the first round of NCAA tournament,
UCLA shooting guard Billy Knight had one thought in terms of that
message from Washington.
Thank you.
Last Saturday’s embarrassing 96-94 defeat to 20-loss Washington,
a squad that averaged 67 points a game, forced UCLA to work on its
defense. After a hard week of practice, the Bruins responded with
their most inspired defensive effort of the season Thursday in
front of 14,235 spectators in
Greensboro Coliseum.
UCLA held Hofstra to just one field goal in the last nine
minutes of the game, and in doing so ended the Pride’s 18-game
winning streak. The Bruins will now play No. 12-seeded Utah State,
an upset winner over Ohio State, in the second round on
Saturday.
"That Washington game really helped us out a lot because all we
did was concentrate on defense in practice," said Knight, who
scored a game-high 17 points.
And it showed.
 PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Dan
Gadzuric places the ball safely in the net as Hofstras
Greg Springfield can only stand amazed in the
first half of play Thursday. After allowing the Pride to dictate
the pace of the game for the first 30 minutes – Hofstra led 43-37
with 13 minutes left in the game – UCLA clamped down
defensively.
The Bruin defense, which has been widely criticized this season,
allowed five points over the last 13 minutes.
Incredibly, Hofstra scored just 15 points in the second half.
Their 48 total points were the fewest the Bruins have given up all
year. While the Pride was throwing up brick after brick and
constantly committing turnovers, UCLA went on a 20-5 run to close
the game and seal the victory.
Knight could tell Hofstra was cracking under his team’s
defensive pressure.
"When they start traveling and they start passing it back and
forth in the backcourt, that’s how we can tell that we have them,"
said Knight, whose team coaxed the Pride into 21 turnovers. "When
we see that, it’s like shark seeing blood and we attack them even
more."
The Bruins attacked defensively with energy and fire not seen
since they stunned Arizona at home on Feb. 15. At least four
players on different occasions left their feet to dive for loose
balls on the floor. Several others took offensive charges.
In one telling play, UCLA point guard Earl Watson stole a ball
as he was going out of bounds. He jumped up, called timeout and
crash-landed in the lap of a reporter in press row.
Even the Bruins’ biggest player, 6-foot-11 center Dan Gadzuric,
joined the act. He was all over the court in the second half,
several times sprinting from one sideline to another in hopes of
grabbing an errant pass.
 PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Billy
Knight flies his way to two of his 17 points in the second
half of play Thursday afternoon.
"Gadzuric’s the fastest guy on our team," Watson said. "When we
do sprints in practice he beats us all. It’s unbelievable. I told
him he should be a wide receiver. Honestly, no one could stop
him."
An athletic center who is able to jump into passing lanes is
scary as it is. Hofstra has no intentions of thinking about a 6-11
wide receiver.
"The most difficult part for us was that they have such great
athletes – one through five – and they all can sprint," Pride point
guard Jason Hernandez said. "They do a great job of moving around
the court and they play so hard on defense."
The Pride, who won this year’s America East Conference
Championship, gave the Bruins quite a scare in the first half. They
not only led for most of the first half but were also dictating the
slow-paced game they had hoped for.
Hofstra, a 33 percent three-point shooting team, jumped out to
an early lead by shooting a scintillating 50 percent from downtown
(7 of 14) in the first half. Hernandez and guard Rick Apodaca each
nailed three bombs.
To the credit of UCLA, a program that has had its share of first
round upsets (see Princeton in 1996 and Detroit Mercy in 1999), the
Bruins kept their composure when it seemed their opponent could do
no wrong in the first half.
 PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Hofstras
Norman Richardson screens Ray
Young, although the attempt does not help his Hofstra
teammate. "I tried to stay calm in the first half and not get
frustrated because the team feeds off of me," Watson said. "Against
Washington I got frustrated and we lost the game. I knew my (poor)
leadership was the reason why we lost that game."
When the final buzzer sounded, Watson and the rest of his
teammates let out a collective sigh of relief, knowing they had
survived a quality Hofstra team.
"It’s a burden lifted off every team that wins in the first
round," Watson said. "It’s you against the world. Everyone was
saying we were going to lose."