Bruins Finally Defeat Oregon

For his first Pacific 10 victory, UCLA’s Walt Hazzard had that tasty new favorite, Choked Duck, as Oregon zoomed to a 22-4 lead over his Bruins, then, and not for the first time this season, strangled on it.

It took a while, which figured since neither team had made a specialty of winning the close games. The Bruins hadn’t managed to be in many, and the Ducks had lost most of theirs, so they did the natural thing Saturday and tied--through regulation and the first overtime, until UCLA finally prevailed in the second overtime, 67-59, at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA is 4-6 overall and 1-1 in the Pac-10 and has finally beaten a team that didn’t have a losing record, at least until now. Oregon is 7-8 overall, 0-2 in the conference.

The Ducks have now lost games in which they led Illinois by six points in a second overtime period; led Minnesota by 13; and led Wichita State by seven. They also have a one-point win over Montana after leading by 13, and a five-point victory over Davidson, after leading by 17 in the second half.

“Well,” said Hazzard, some three hours after the game started, “that was easy.”

All it took was a little perseverance, while the Bruins got themselves turned every way but loose coming out of the gate.

Say the secret word and the Ducks will come down and hand you your lunch. The word in this case was “letdown,” the Bruins apparently still in the throes of congratulating themselves on having played such a fine 15 minutes Thursday at Corvallis, Ore.

Oregon scored on its first three possessions without taking anything longer than an eight-foot shot and led, 6-2. When Oregon’s Greg Trapp, still a king in Pauley, ran down the lane and threw in a thundering dunk, Hazzard rose from the bench, said something stronger and more concise than “Goodness gracious sakes alive!” and sent Craig Jackson in for Reggie Miller.

Trapp then proceeded to rebound three straight Oregon misses, scoring after each, twice on dunks. Gary Maloncon had Trapp for one but Jackson, who was going to turn out to be a Bruin star, had him for the last two. In this program, nobody’s perfect, not since Bill Walton left.

By this time, it was 20-4, with the Bruin offense in the process of missing 10 of its first 12 shots, both of its first two free throws and going 6:00 without a point. When Oregon forward Mike Matheson waltzed past their prostrate defense for the layup that made it 22-4, the crowd, such as it was, 6,322 strong, booed.

Hazzard had already pulled his four remaining starters, sending in Jack Haley for Brad Wright, Jerald Jones for Maloncon, Montel Hatcher for Corey Gaines and Dave Immel for Nigel Miguel.

“We were a little flat,” Miguel said later.

“Oh, really?” said his coach, from the back of the interview room.

“I know you’re going to ask me, was I worried at that point?” said Hazzard later. “Yes, I was worried . . . “

“Our kids have paid the price. We got off the plane yesterday and had a three-hour practice. I thought they were ready to play. But the first 10 minutes, I was trying to find a place to hide.”

After that, though, it was the Ducks who went cold, or flat, or got scared. Hatcher, who is in a shooting slump and had been limited him to five minutes in Corvallis, threw in three of the four long jumpers he tried before halftime. Jackson had a three-point play on an offensive rebound. Wright who’d shot the ball once in the first 14:40, scored seven points in the last 5:20 of the half while 7-foot, 250-pound Blair Rasmussen sat on the bench in foul trouble, and the Bruins cut the Ducks’ lead to 32-25.

With 2:26 gone in the second half and the Ducks up by eight, Rasmussen drew his fourth foul. Oregon Coach Don Monson sat him down and the Bruins came after the Ducks.

UCLA roared to within a point of a tie, but it seemed to be a tough point. Dave Immel missed two free throws. A moment later, with the Ducks up by three again, Immel scored on a short post-up jumper, was fouled, and then with a chance to tie the game, missed the free throw. Wright drove around the newly returned Rasmussen and missed a layup. Immel missed an open 20-footer. Wright lost a pass in the low post.

Finally, with 2:07 left in regulation, Hatcher put in a long jumper to give the Bruins their first--and only--lead of regulation.

With :21 left and a chance to put the Ducks up, Oregon point guard Chris Harper made only one of two free throws to tie the game at 49-49.

In the last seconds, Miguel put up a running 12-footer off the board that rimmed out, resulting in:

THE FIRST OVERTIME

Trapp fouled out early. Oregon had a 53-51 lead until Miguel, who wasn’t redhot at this point, hit a 20-footer.

The Bruins had the ball and a shot for the winning basket until Jackson threw the ball away on a simple, uncontested wing-backcourt exchange with :13 left. Monson set up a last play for Rasmussen who came out to the high post and put up a 15-footer that Wright blocked.

“He (Rasmussen) wanted to make sure,” said Monson. “He took a little too much time.”

Wright’s desperate last-second heave from behind half-court cleared the backboard by several yards. It was impressive for distance but only resulted in:

THE SECOND OVERTIME

Both offenses continued their torrid pace.

Neither scored a field goal until 2:07 remained. The Bruins had a 54-53 lead on Miguel’s free throw when Reggie Miller hit a 22-footer for what looked like a formidable 56-53 lead.

At the other end, Matheson missed a 12-footer which Wright rebounded. Rasmussen pressed himself upon Wright. Wright decided to dribble out of trouble. There was contact and/or Wright fell.

One referee, Dave Libbey, called traveling.

Another referee, Charlie Range, called a foul on Rasmussen, his fifth.

The referees huddled. It was ruled a foul on Rasmussen. Ask Walt Hazzard, there’s no place like home.

Wright sank both free throws, making it 58-53 and the Bruins cruised in. In the last seconds, Miguel, on a fast break, threw a lob to Wright who caught it one-handed and slammed it. Dean Smith would have had a heart attack but then Dean Smith has only one conference victory, too, and the play passed, uncritiqued, for the moment. Look for it in the highlight film. Bruin Notes Notable Bruin performances include: Craig Jackson, 12 points and 11 rebounds; Brad Wright, 11 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots . . . Gary Maloncon had the flu all week and played only 13 minutes . . . Oregon Coach Don Monson: “I can’t say that (the Duck collapses) isn’t a problem. It is . . . This was one of those days. This is a crazy profession. We played so well. It was just what I was hoping for, with the ballclub coming in here. Then we got into foul trouble. We just couldn’t seem to make the right free throws. We can’t get the right shots to fall down at the right time.” . . . The Bruins play once this week, here Thursday night against Washington State, a highly surprising 10-2.