Monday, April 1, 1996
Disappointing loss forces m. hoops to fix errors, move onBy
Melissa Anderson
and Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA men’s basketball team, which had mastered the art of
escape in a precarious run to the 1995 Pacific 10 Championship,
chose a most inopportune moment to run out of answers.
Shackled by Princeton’s match-up zone defense in the first round
of the NCAA Tournament, the Bruins (23-8) turned in their worst
offensive performance of the season and lost, 43-41 to a Tiger
squad that has been well-known for its upset potential.
In fact, the loss was a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts for
UCLA head coach Jim Harrick, who had experienced the scorn of a
first-round loss to Tulsa two years ago.
The matchup with the Tigers (22-7) had all the makings of
Harrick’s worst nightmare. Under the direction of long-time head
coach Pete Carril  who announced his retirement just days
before the tournament began  Princeton had lost four
consecutive first-round games by a combined 15 points, including a
near upset of Georgetown in 1989 which ended in a 50-49 Tiger
loss.
Carril’s teams were always among the most fundamentally sound in
the nation, and his slow-tempo brand of basketball was sure to
cause fits for the Bruins, who struggled against similar teams
during the regular season.
"You can’t fall asleep or they’ll pick you apart," Harrick said
after the pairings were announced. "They’re a very, very well
coached team."
As it turned out, Harrick’s concerns were not unfounded. Though
his team jumped out to an early 7-0 lead and held a 16-9 advantage
with 6:41 left in the first half, Harrick would watch in agony as
the Bruins came up empty on six of their final seven possessions of
the half.
Princeton, meanwhile, was operating Carril’s offense to near
perfection, and despite a .304 field goal shooting percentage,
closed the halftime gap to 19-18 on a Gabe Lewullis layin with 18
seconds on the clock.
UCLA, which received only 21 minutes of action from a flu-ridden
J.R. Henderson, continued to struggle early in the second half, and
the Tigers went ahead, 23-21, with just under 15 minutes
remaining.
The Bruins then received a spark from seldom-used freshman
Brandon Loyd, who knocked down a pair of three pointers for a 29-26
lead, and two more treys by Toby Bailey left the score at 39-34
with nine minutes to go.
But Kris Johnson’s layin with 6:13 left would constitute UCLA’s
last points of the game, and Princeton  fueled by the emotion
surrounding Carril’s pending retirement and a partisan crowd Â
hit the comeback trail.
"I know this country roots for the underdog, and we’ve been in
that position before," Carril said. "We had the fans on our side
tonight.
"If we played UCLA 100 times, they might win 99. But we won
tonight, and it’s a great win for these kids."
Sydney Johnson tied the game for the Tigers on a layin with 2:58
left, then appeared to blow the game two minutes later when he
intentionally fouled Cameron Dollar after turning the ball
over.
Dollar, however, missed both of his free throws, and Kris
Johnson came up short on a runner in the lane on the Bruins’
ensuing possession.
"We had enough chances to win," Harrick said. "We just didn’t
get it done. We missed some shots, missed some foul shots and
turned the ball over too much."
The Tigers grabbed the rebound of Johnson’s miss and called time
out with 21 seconds remaining, at which time the upset seemed
inevitable.
With four seconds left, Steve Goodrich hit a streaking Lewullis,
who beat Charles O’Bannon for one of Carril’s patented back-door
layups, which all but turned the lights out on the Bruins’
season.
"The first time I went back door on O’Bannon, he played me
pretty well," Lewullis said, "so the second time I went out to the
three-point line and came in."
UCLA would get one more chance, however, and if history was any
indicator (read: Tyus Edney against Missouri) the defending
national champs would find a way out of this one, too.
Dollar dribbled into the front court and Kris Johnson called
timeout with 2.2 seconds remaining. The following inbound pass went
to Bailey, who led UCLA with 13 points, but whose final shot missed
everything.
"I was just looking for anybody who was open," Dollar said of
the last hand-off. "Because of the angle of the defender, it was
easiest to throw it to Toby. He’s been known to come up with plays
like that in the past, and you’ve gotta go out swinging and that’s
what we did."
The only bright side for the Bruins is that they return all five
starters next year and, well, the last time they lost in the
first-round, they followed up with a national title.
"It’s over and done with; we’re looking forward to next year,"
O’Bannon said. "We have everyone but one returning and we’ve got a
lot of work ahead of us this summer."
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
Princeton’s Sydney Johnson (left) was called for an intentional
foul on Cameron Dollar with less than a minute to play, but Dollar
was unable to convert either free throw.
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