UCLA Defense Stops Fresno State, 53-43 : New York Is the Next Stop as Bruins Advance to NIT Semifinals

Fresno State’s Red Wave flowed through Westwood’s boutiques Saturday and later took over the entire west end of Pauley Pavilion, wearing their “Now UCLA, Now U Don’t” T-shirts.

So much for the high points of their trip.

Saturday night, UCLA gave up 10 fewer points than the No. 1 defense in the country and defeated the Bulldogs, 53-43, before a sellout crowd of 12,577, some 5,000 of whom had a long drive home. Now U can CLA in the NIT semifinals.

“Biggest win of my career,” cried a jubilant Walt Hazzard. “We’re going back to New York after being embarrassed Dec. 22 (by St. John’s, 88-69). We’re going to show the world the new Bruins, the real Bruins.”

Whichever Bruins they are, they’re 19-12, winners of six in a row and 10 out of 11.

This night was pretty much their’s from the beginning, though it was a little hard to tell, since almost half the house was wearing Fresno red. Everyone noticed.

“I got here tonight and I had to do a double-take,” Brad Wright said. “I said, ‘Is this Pauley?’ There was a lot of grabbing. I had to have a police escort to get in. I said, ‘Wait a minute, isn’t this our place?’ ”

It still was, though the Bruins had to prove it. So they did, beating the Bulldogs (23-9) with their own tough defense, easing away late in the first half, taking a 27-18 lead by holding Fresno to one field goal in the last 8:21.

Then they held the Bulldogs to three more baskets in the first 11:20 of the second half. That made a total of eight Fresno points in 19:41, after which UCLA led by 17 points.

Fresno wound up shooting 19 for 57 and turning the ball over 11 times. Wright had 16 points and 15 rebounds, the latter a career high for the second game in a row. Nigel Miguel held Fresno’s leading scorer, Mitch Arnold, to two points and 1 for 14. Arnold missed his first 11 shots before he made his only one, with 7:43 left in the game. Gary Maloncon held the No. 2 scorer, Scott Barnes, to 6 for 19.

“I knew two days ago he (Miguel) was going to play him (Arnold) like that,” Hazzard said. “I saw the fire in his eyes. Every time I mentioned his name, he said, ‘I’m going to shut that boy down.’ And he did.”

UCLA led, 43-26, when Arnold finally hit a 17-footer. The Red Wave jumped to its feet and cheered. Moments later, Jos Kuipers scored on a rebound, the second time all evening the Bulldogs had scored two baskets in a row, and Fresno fans really started stirring.

Shortly thereafter, Barnes hit a 15-footer and the west end went nuts. If Fresno never gets on the UCLA schedule, it should know that in that moment, the UCLA administration probably decided that it would never sentence any of its teams to playing before 10,000 of those banshees.

“Put it this way,” Wright said. “I don’t know how many they had but they were loud. “

The Bulldogs scored five more points in a row to cut it to 43-37. At that point, Maloncon had a shot blocked and Barnes rebounded it, but then was called for elbowing Miguel. The Bruins got the ball back, and this time Maloncon dropped in a 14-footer, the first UCLA basket in six minutes.

Fifteen seconds later, Arnold put up his last miss of the night, on an open 17-footer. Wright rebounded, was fouled, and made both halves of the one-and-one. The Bruins started to turn east, toward the sunrise and New York.

Hazzard, animated as ever, put on a baseball cap with N.Y. emblazoned on it and celebrated in style.

“You buried us, but you didn’t bury me,” he said at the postgame press conference. “I was never dead.

“After the death march (his term for the tough December schedule), I remember the words that came out of my mouth. I said we’d either be good or dead. We’re good.

“I don’t care what you writers say about it being a second-rate, no-account tournament. In the East, that was all there was. We’re marching back after getting embarrassed Dec. 22.”

Said Miguel: “This is great. I’ve never felt like this before. We’re going to a final four, even if it is the NIT. I’m not putting it down. If it’s considered a second-class tournament, there’s still a winner and a loser. I want to be the winner.”

Notes

UCLA players wore black bands on their uniform jerseys in memory of Nell Wooden, who died Thursday morning.

UCLA forward Craig Jackson, who had missed the last two weeks with a proken bone in his left hand, returned and saw action.