Stanford No Match for UCLA

UCLA, hoping to preserve what remains of its title hopes, met the witch doctor of the Pacific 10, Stanford’s Dr. Tom Davis, conqueror of USC and Arizona, but not the Bruins Monday night.

They ran his tenacious full-court press, shot up his unfathomable zone and took a 21-point lead with 7:06 left. By adroit use of fouls and timeouts, Stanford managed to draw the game out to 2:09 and hold UCLA to a 72-66 victory, the Bruins’ second road win this season.

“That tricky little basketball that Tom Davis plays,” UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard said. “We beat them by a big score (100-71), and they went down to the Sports Arena and beat SC. I was there when it happened. . . .

“You’d better have your thinking cap on here when you come in to play . . . Spinning the bounce pass on the baseline to the man inside. They got one tonight. I saw them get one at crunch time against USC.”

The Bruins are 11-11, 8-5 in the conference and two games behind leaders USC and Arizona, heading into Thursday’s game at Cal. After that the Bruins play home games against USC, Arizona and Oregon State.

Had they lost here, they’d have been all but dead and fairly embarrassed, too. As were the Trojans, when Davis caught them looking ahead to UCLA three weeks ago. As was Arizona, when Davis wiped out a nine-point halftime deficit with his press.

But unlike last season, when Dr. Tom fielded a pretty good team, he is back trying to do it with mirrors. The Cardinal opened the night with a 2-10 conference record, a five-game losing streak and a 41% shooting percentage from the floor in conference play. Having one’s season ended here would be like getting eliminated by the staff of National Lampoon.

But there were moments when that seemed possible, like those early in the game when the Cardinal rubbed out UCLA’s early 6-2 lead and went ahead, 10-8.

That field goal, by guard Novian Whitsitt, however, was the last one Stanford was going to score for 8:28. This was a bunt compared to the 21 1/2-minute stretch with one field goal the Cardinal had here last week while scoring 41 points--in double overtime--and losing to Cal.

Stanford wound up shooting 7 for 30 in Monday night’s first half, the worst shooting half in Davis’ three seasons here. Davis substituted 21 players in the first half alone and managed to score 22 points, good enough to trail, 35-22. This suggests that his substitution pattern isn’t going to reach maximum effectiveness until he recruits better players to put in the game.

In the first half, Davis’ bench was 0 for 11 from the floor with two points.

It was outscored by Gary Maloncon, the new Bruin reserve forward, who had 9 points and 6 rebounds in the first half and 17 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocked shots by the evening’s long-deferred end. In his first two games coming off the bench this season, Maloncon is averaging 11.5 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.

The man who replaced him, freshman Craig Jackson, came in shooting 34.2% in conference play but scored seven first-half points, all of them in the first 12 minutes when UCLA went ahead to stay.

The Bruins then held off the last, slow Stanford charge and split for the airport, with one intermediate stop.

“I’ll even eat a postgame meal tonight,” Hazzard said. “I haven’t had too many lately.”

“You’ll love it, too,” a Bruin official said.

“What is it, McDonald’s?” Hazzard asked.

“Wendy’s,” the official said.

“That’s fine,” Hazzard said.

Bruin Notes Reggie Miller, who’d sat out one minute in the previous five games, which included three overtime periods, got a four-minute rest in the first half. Miller is in something of a slump from the outside. He finished 1 for 7 Monday. . . . Stanford students tried jumping up and down at mid-court to bother UCLA free-throw shooters. The court in Maples Pavilion has a cushion of air under it, to make it easier on players’ knees, but it gives the floor a strange trampoline effect. When the Lakers’ Kurt Rambis was at Santa Clara, he complained about playing here. He said he kept getting caught in between the floor’s bounces. . . . Distractions notwithstanding, UCLA which missed 18 of 33 free throws against Arizona State, made 28 of 36 Monday night. Miller was 6 for 6 and Nigel Miguel was 8 for 9. Miguel led all scorers with 18 points. . . . Three Cardinal fouled out. Two others had four fouls.