How it happened is pretty clear.
Why it had to happen, well, that’s the question that won’t go
away for a long, long time.
The Bruins had a Staples Center crowd of 16,689 completely
stunned for the second day in a row. Up by 12 with less than four
minutes to go, UCLA needed only to run the clock down on offense
and hit its free throws.
It was going to happen.
Oregon fouled the Bruins on three straight possessions,
seemingly playing its last card and putting UCLA into the bonus.
Freshman Ryan Hollins missed the second of his two free throws, but
it seemed harmless enough. After all, the Bruins still enjoyed a
12-point edge and the Ducks were shooting abysmally.
In reality, though, the Bruins were already flustered. They
didn’t really run an offense for four or five minutes, instead
opting to run the shot clock down to five seconds.
"Strategically, that’s what you’re supposed to do, but then we
turned it over on the press," UCLA assistant coach Jim Saia
said.
Ah, yes, the press, that thing the Bruins looked completely
surprised to see.
Oregon, one of the fastest teams in the nation, applied
full-court pressure, and what followed was three minutes that
seemed to fly by in seconds.
"It kind of went by in a blur," Ray Young said.
James Davis hit a three to pull the Ducks within eight, UCLA
didn’t convert on the other end, Luke Jackson banked a fallaway
jumper, Oregon trapped Dijon Thompson into a traveling call, Luke
Ridnour made a layup, Davis hit another three.
And all of a sudden, that comfortable 12-point lead was down to
a panicky one.
Still, UCLA held possession, and when Thompson went to the line
to shoot two with 40.7 seconds left, the Bruins had a chance to
score for the first time in two-and-a-half minutes.
Thompson missed the second free throw, though, and the Bruins
led by a precarious two.
After an Oregon timeout, Ridnour missed a three-point attempt,
but the rebound came back out and Luke Jackson, the Duck
sharpshooter who had yet to make a three, made one when he needed
to.
The Bruins, on the other hand, had been running down the clock
since the eight minute mark, and so appeared unable to snap back
into aggressive offense when they needed to.
After a string of scoreless possessions, Ray Young’s fade-away
shot from the baseline barely missed, and the horn made UCLA’s
collapse official.
"I feel responsible," Lavin said. "I could have put us in a
better position to win."
UCLA players placed the onus on themselves. Young and Jason
Kapono, the two seniors who carried the team during its late-season
run, looked bewildered, as though they were trapped in a nightmare
that needed to end soon.
"It’s like I can’t trust that the game happened," Kapono
said.
"We thought we had the game and we let it slip away," Young
said. "But I can still live with myself when I go to bed
tonight."
Hey, Young figured, these things happen.