UCLA Makes It Look Easy Against Cougars

School was back in at UCLA, where the students returned to barely used seats at Pauley Pavilion, just in time to watch the Bruins let class out for Washington State. The Cougars showed up with a nine-game winning streak and their hopes at an all-time high but got shipped out horizontally, with two other streaks still alive.

The Cougars are 0-20 in Pauley, 0-28 against UCLA in Los Angeles. This was more like days of yore, when they had to concern themselves more with getting out alive than winning.

The Bruins hit them with everything they had Thursday night, including a whole lot of Brad Wright. The senior center set career highs of 21 points and 14 rebounds, blocked 4 shots and added 3 assists as UCLA won, 75-48, before a crowd of 8,438, which might not sound like a lot unless you’ve been here this season. It was the Bruins’ biggest crowd.

This was also their first victory over a team with a winning record. UCLA has a winning record, in the conference, anyway. The Bruins are 2-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference, 5-6 overall. WSU is 10-3, 2-1.

“Someone told me they were 10-2 and they’d been kicking everybody’s butts,” Wright said. “I said it didn’t matter to me. In December, instead of that joyous holiday, we went to hell and back. And we’re still kicking.”

But never as hard as Thursday. After two belly-up starts in Pac-10 games and a lineup change, the Bruins scored on their first six possessions. Four different players scored the points. Wright had 10 of his rebounds and all four of his blocks in the first half. UCLA held the Cougars to four field goals in 24 shots and led by as many as 19 points. Lineup change notwithstanding, the difference was that this time the Bruins came out playing hard.

“A lot of people were down on them,” Washington State Coach Len Stevens said, “but I don’t know which Pac-10 team could have done much better with that schedule.

“What it’s done is help them now. They fought through it and they stuck together. . . . People were saying they couldn’t play, but the last time I looked, they had five high school All-Americans on the team. With any new coach, it takes time to adjust to him and his system. Walt (Hazzard) will have those guys playing the way they used to. I’m happy for him. I know what it’s like to go through that. They’ll get the players, too. I think it’s good for our conference. People in the East identify with UCLA. I think it helps our conference.”

Facing nothing but the bottomless pit, the Cougars spent the early second half sending all sorts of tremors through Hazzard’s psyche, most of them courtesy of Keith Morrison, a guard on Kevin Holmes’ Cleveland High (Reseda) team. Dogged on the press all night by the cat-quick Montel Hatcher, which should have left him near exhaustion, Morrison instead came out and scored 10 points in the first seven minutes of the half on a dazzling array of shots in the lane, right-handers, left-handers, anything he could imagine.

With 6:24 gone in the half, the UCLA lead was down to 42-31. At that point, guard Dave Immel, who’d been blanked for playing time in the first half and rushed in when things started deteriorating, got fouled and made one of two free throws; hit a long jumper on the next trip down the floor; then assisted on two layups.

After that, the Bruins were ahead by 17 and the Cougars, whose strengths do not include depth, were about to expire.

A lot of happy things happened for the Bruins the rest of the way. When Nigel Miguel came out of the game, Reggie Miller, already on the bench, walked up to midcourt to hug him. After a dunk, Wright ran back up the floor, slapping fives with students, cheerleaders and anyone else on the sideline who wanted to. Hazzard slapped hands up and down the bench. When the game ended, several UCLA players went over and exchanged high-fives with students. In the interview room, Miguel praised the demoted starter, Corey Gaines, for hanging in there.

“I’d like to compliment Corey Gaines,” Miguel said. “What coach did for the team, I know hurt him personally, but he came in tonight and gave 100%. It’s a growing experience for him. I know. I went through it last year.”

For the first time this season, UCLA has a winning streak. Naturally, someone asked Hazzard if the Bruins were on a roll.

“We’ve won two games in a row,” he said. “If that’s a roll, we’ll take it. We’d like to roll some more.”

Bruin Notes

Brad Wright, told that he’d just become the center UCLA had waited 3 1/2 years for, laughed: “I’ve been sitting there all the time, waiting. . . . This is really my freshman year. This is my first year of playing full time. . . . Reggie Miller, complimented after the Oregon game in which he took five of his 20 rebounds this season, took seven more. Said Walt Hazzard after the Oregon game: “We were talking among ourselves once and Reggie said he could get six. And nobody said a word.”. . . . Depth? Washington State had four players who went 35 minutes or more. Center Todd Anderson played only 29 because of foul trouble. Len Stevens: “We won nine in a row, but it couldn’t go on. We knew that. We lost some people. Our true test of character comes Saturday against a fine USC team.” . . . Next for UCLA are games at Arizona State and Arizona.