It’s official, m. hoops tops ‘Cats
Johnson’s freethrow caps comeback, secures 76-75 win
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Staff
They couldn’t have lost it like that.
Not the most important game of the season, not when they had
clawed their way back from a 19-point first-half deficit to a tie
score with 26 seconds to go, and not when they had possession of
the ball to boot.
But UCLA (17-6, 10-2 Pacific 10) almost did lose its critical
Pac-10 conference basketball matchup with No. 13 Arizona (18-5,
7-4) Thursday night, and the Bruins almost lost it on a mental
error of the worst kind.
They had been nearly flawless in the second half, shooting 57.1
percent from the field and outrebounding the Wildcats 19-8 en route
to a 75-75 tie.
But as they returned to the floor for what was supposed to be
the game’s final sequence, after a timeout that was used to draw up
one last shot, none of UCLA’s team members realized that there were
one too many players on the floor. Not until the ball had been
inbounded, anyway, and referees had blown the whistle for a
technical foul that put the Wildcats at the line and gave them
possession of the ball.
In the end, though, the Bruins did emerge with a victory, a
76-75 decision that was even more bizarre than their 66-65 loss at
Stanford last week, in which referees removed three of UCLA’s
points from the scoreboard.
It was bizarre because Miles Simon, the Arizona sophomore who
lit the Bruins up for 28 points in an 88-79 Wildcat victory Jan. 20
and is the current Pac-10 player of the week, stepped to the line
and missed both technical free throws.
It was bizarre because Ben Davis, who had 21 points and eight
rebounds at halftime, missed a short layin on the Wildcats
possession after Simon’s gag.
And it was bizarre because UCLA’s Kris Johnson, who grabbed the
rebound of Davis’ miss, was fouled by Joe McLean with one second
left on the clock – a questionable piece of officiating that,
unfortunately, isn’t so bizarre in the Pac-10 conference these
days.
"It upsets me a great deal, and if I were that official, I would
not sleep very well tonight," Arizona head coach Lute Olson said.
"Here are two teams busting their tail for the entire ball game,
and he takes it upon himself to decide the outcome."
The call did more or less decide the outcome of the game, only
because it was the Wildcat’s seventh foul of the half and put
Johnson at the foul line for a one-and-one opportunity.
Johnson, who finished with nine points, calmly sank the first
free throw, then intentionally missed the second, knowing that the
Wildcats would not be unable to get a shot off.
"There was a lot of pressure, and I was feeling it, but I had
been in that situation before," Johnson said. "I knew, that if I
concentrated, bend my knees and use fingertips, that I was going to
hit it."
UCLA didn’t always have reason to be so confident. In a game
that defied all expectations in the first half, the Bruins found
themselves down 35-16 following a Davis dunk 13 minutes into the
first half.
Instead of hitting UCLA with a barrage of outside shots, as the
Wildcats (four of 14 from three-point territory) did in the first
meeting, they continually fed Davis – who was being double teamed –
for easy buckets down low.
But Davis went cold in the second half, mainly because of the
outstanding play of UCLA freshman center Jelani McCoy, who finished
with 13 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots while holding
his Arizona counterpart to just four points and four rebounds in
the second half.
"We just challenged Jelani McCoy at halftime," UCLA head coach
Jim Harrick said. "We quit double-teaming Davis, went straight
one-on-one, man-to-man, stopped their dribble penetration and
played hard."
Toby Bailey led the Bruins with 16 points and Cameron Dollar had
an outstanding game off the bench, contributing 14 points and three
assists.
* * *
Moving ever closer to a defense of their Pac-10 championship,
the Bruins host Arizona State Saturday at 2 p.m.
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
Freshman center Jelani McCoy posted 13 points, 13 rebounds and
seven blocks in leading the m. hoops comeback against Arizona
Thursday.
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