Bruins Toss One Arizona’s Way in 53-52 Loss

Lute Olson, who hopes to turn the McKale Center into the Pacific 10’s most forbidding pit, finally bagged a conference opponent, a marauding Bruin of the UCLA variety.

The Bruin had won three straight games and was within a good in-bounds pass of a chance at No. 4 and then a Monday showdown with Washington. But Gary Maloncon’s throw was deflected, intercepted and finally converted into Eddie Smith’s free throw with :01 left Saturday, giving Arizona a 53-52 victory and dropping UCLA back into the Pac-10 pack.

The Bruins are 6-7 overall, 3-2 in the Pac-10, 1-1 for the Arizona swing, and they still get the Huskies Monday night at Pauley Pavilion.

Olson’s Wildcats are 12-5, 3-2 and tied for fourth place with UCLA.

Didn’t this show how close the conference teams are, the Arizona publicist asked in the interview room.

“This is not a good time to ask me a question like that,” said a glum Walt Hazzard, apparently still of a mind that his Bruins were better than the Wildcats. “That was a tough loss. We gave it away.”

The Bruins played well enough Saturday to take everything Arizona and a big house (11,025) could throw at them. The Wildcats had an early seven-point lead, but the Bruins overhauled them. Arizona had two two-point leads in the last 3:08 of the game, but UCLA made four straight free throws to tie it again.

Brad Wright knocked in the first two while the fans stood and waved, two male undergraduates wearing print dresses cavorted behind the basket, and the pep band drummer hit a roll. Then, 173-pound Reggie Miller went belly-to-belly for a rebound with the defending conference champion, Pete Williams, got the ball, fouled Williams out and, with the student section chanting “Cher-yl! Cher-yl!” made two free throws without touching the rim on either.

Miller’s free throws made it 48-48 with 1:48 left, and Olson put his team into a delay. That ended when Miller batted away a David Haskin pass, picked up the ball and called time with :22 left.

Enter Joe Turner, a 6-9 Arizona freshman with a wide wingspan. Turner, guarding the in-bounds passer, deflected Maloncon’s toss toward Miller in the backcourt. The ball fell like a wounded duck to Craig McMillan, who caught it and called time, at :19.

“He (Maloncon) threw it to the wrong man,” Hazzard said later. “There was a man standing in front of him . . . Nigel Miguel. That man (Miller) was the safety, in case he had trouble.”

Had Hazzard had the man he wanted making the in-bounds pass?

“After the fact,” Hazzard said, “no . . .

“That’s a thought I need to reconsider. But you still expect someone to throw the ball to the man in front of him.”

Maloncon, shaking his head sadly: “I took a quick look (for Miguel) before the referee gave me the ball, but I didn’t see him. I saw Reggie in the backcourt, and I just tried to get it to him.

“I feel real bad. The team worked real hard. Just little mistakes like that, and we lose.”

The Wildcats held the ball for 11 seconds before Miller batted away another of their passes. This one went out of bounds, just ahead of Wright’s attempt to save it.

With :08 left, Arizona inbounded the ball again, successfully. Guard Steve Kerr, the former Bruin ballboy from Pacific Palisades whose outside shooting had kept his team ahead, and the first option on this play, eluded his defender. Wright jumped out. Kerr pump-faked Wright into the air, stepped under him and hit Eddie Smith, unguarded in the lane.

Smith is the leading scorer in Pac-10 play, but he was 3 for 14 Saturday. UCLA’s freshman forward, Craig Jackson, who’d been the one turning him off most of the afternoon, hurried over. Smith put up a twisting jumper, just as Jackson, playing it aggressively, jumped out at him.

The shot missed. Then Jackson made contact. The referee’s whistle blew with :01 left.

After the obligatory UCLA timeout, Smith, a 77% free throw shooter, dropped the first one cleanly. He missed the second on purpose. Wright rebounded it and threw it over the backboard at the other end.

Thus, after a one-point loss to USC Thursday, did Olson get his home-court advantage back. The Wildcats have sold 8,000 season tickets. They have a pep band that played continuously through the first two minutes of action, a cheerleader named “Ooh Aah” who went out on the floor, and the piece de resistance , the Plaid Brothers.

The Plaid Brothers are the two undergrads in plaid hats, sunglasses and dresses, who strolled behind the basket when the Bruins shot free throws. The first time they did it, Miguel missed two tries. Overall, though, UCLA was 12 for 16 Saturday, which is 80% and better than its 67.9% average, so you couldn’t say the Brothers took a terrible toll.

This time.

“Blair Rasmussen (of Oregon) missed two free throws last season when we did it,” said Brad Grunberg, a junior business major from Los Angeles. “They gave him another one, and he missed that, too. The referee kicked us out of the stadium, but we won in overtime.

“A.C. Green (of Oregon State) came up to us after a game and said, ‘What you guys are doing is very immature. I don’t have anything against you guys, but don’t do it again.’ We walked behind Pete Williams and said, ‘What did you say again?’ ”

“This is probably our last game,” said the other Brother, Taylor Samuels, a junior in pre-med.

“We want to get paid for doing this.” Bruin Notes After the game, Eddie Smith asked Arizona publicist Butch Henry if he’d call the Pac-10 office, to get the intentionally missed free throw taken off his statistics. Henry said he was sorry, but. . . . Reggie Miller made six of his seven first-half shots, none of them from closer than 20 feet and a couple from a stride farther than that. Lute Olson put a diamond-and-one on the Bruins after that, with freshman Craig McMillan on Miller man-to-man. Olson: “Miller was just flat-out destroying us the first half, which is something Reggie can do. We tried to recruit him at Iowa and then again after we came here. Once he gets that gum smacking and gets his confidence up, the only way you can play him is try to keep the ball away from him.” Miller finished with 16 points and four rebounds. He now has 25 rebounds in the last five games, after taking 15 in the first eight. . . . Olson gives Washington and Oregon State an edge over the rest of the Pac-10: “I do because of the two great players they have. If you put (Washington’s Detlef) Schrempf on our team, I’d give us the edge. If you put A.C. Green on our team, I’d give us the edge. If you put either on UCLA’s team, I’d give them the edge. If you want to talk about the other four positions, I’d put ours up against anybody’s. I’d put UCLA’s up against anybody’s, or USC’s.” And Olson, on the state of the conference: “I think the Big 10 is better than the Pac-10. I think the ACC is better than the Pac-10. I think the Big East is. I’d be asinine to think differently. The only thing I say, the conference coaches we’ve got, if you give us a couple more years recruiting as hard as we are, then let’s talk about it.” . . . Pete Williams fouled out for the third time, which is one reason all his numbers are down. Olson, asked if he had a way to keep his center in: “We’re going to ask the league to allow him seven fouls.”