Monday, January 27, 1997
M.HOOPS:
Four nonconference losses may harm chances of securing top NCAA
Tournament bidBy Emmanuelle Ejercito
Daily Bruin Staff
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The UCLA men’s basketball team may feel that
it has a case of deja vu.
Although it was one year later and the arena was different, the
overall scenario was the same: The Bruins built a sizable lead,
surrendered it, fell behind and then dug themselves back out to
take a small lead in the final minute. And, for the second straight
year, No. 6 Louisville came back to beat UCLA in a
down-to-the-buzzer thriller, 74-71 Saturday afternoon.
Last year it was Brian Kiser’s three-pointer that pulled the rug
out from under the Bruins (11-5 overall, 6-1 Pacific 10) for a
78-76 win. This year it was senior guard B.J. Flynn’s turn.
With less than one minute remaining and UCLA nursing a two-point
lead, the Cardinals’ DeJuan Wheat drove the ball into the lane,
forcing the UCLA defense to collapse inside. Instead of taking it
all the way to the hole, however, Wheat dished the ball out to an
open Flynn on the left wing. Flynn, who finished the game with 16
points, squared up from beyond the arc and buried a three with 37
seconds remaining to give the Cardinals (16-2, 3-1 Conference USA)
a one-point lead in front of their 20,043 fans.
But in the world of basketball, 37 seconds leaves time for a few
possessions, leaving UCLA with a few chances to pull out a victory
in Freedom Hall. However, UCLA was unable to capitalize on any
subsequent possessions.
The first attempt to regain the lead came when Cameron Dollar
sliced through the key for a lay-up, but the ball rolled off the
rim and Louisville regained possession.
"I just came up short," Dollar said. "At this level you
shouldn’t miss layups like that, but today I did."
The Bruins had another opportunity after Louisville’s Alex
Sanders missed the front end of a one-and-one on the free-throw
line and J.R Henderson grabbed the rebound.
Henderson, who had a solid game shooting 50 percent from the
field for a total of 13 points, was slated to be the Bruins’ hero
on the next play. However, after getting entangled with a
Louisville player and tripping on his way to the basket, Henderson
was called for travelling.
"J.R had 24 points and was nine for 10 the other night against
USC," UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said. "He had a good look at the
basket and sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t."
Then, with 5.6 seconds left, Wheat added the final two of his
team-high 17 points by sinking a pair of free throws to give
Louisville a three-point lead.
In UCLA’s final gasp, Dollar passed the ball to an open Toby
Bailey for a three-pointer that had the direction but not the
distance, hitting the front of the rim as the buzzer sounded.
"I had the look," Bailey said. "I had time to square up, I got
my legs under me and I just missed."
While the game does not have a bearing on conference standings,
the loss may come back to haunt the Bruins down the stretch. Should
UCLA get a tournament bid, its 1-4 record against nonconference
teams could hurt UCLA’s chances of getting seeded in the West.
"We were ready for this game," said Charles O’Bannon, who came
through another strong outing Saturday with a game-high 24 points
and six rebounds. "It was evident the way we came out. We realize,
especially after last year’s seeding, that nonconference games are
extremely important and we were just unfortunate that we didn’t get
this one."
UCLA played well in the first half, dominating the boards to set
up easy deuces from under the basket. At one point, the Bruins
commanded an 11-point lead, as the Cardinals could not penetrate
UCLA’s zone defense. In addition, Louisville only shot 38 percent
from the field, while the Bruins connected on 61 percent. However,
of the 11 shots the Cardinals made before intermission, six of them
were from beyond the arc, keeping Louisville within three at the
half.
But in the second half, the Cardinals became more aggressive in
the paint, outrebounding UCLA and not giving the Bruins as many
easy looks. The Bruins’ second-half field-goal percentage dropped
to 47.4 percent, and by the end of the game the Cardinals had 17
offensive rebounds to the Bruins’ six.
"On the whole, (Louisville) played a great game," Bailey said.
"I think that we played a pretty good game and hopefully we’ll just
go back and keep winning in the Pac-10."
JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
Jelani McCoy stood tall in the middle, picking up three blocked
shots (including this one against Alvin Sims), but the Bruins came
up short in the end, losing 74-71.