Miller and the Bruins Go for It : Reggie Gets 41 Points as UCLA Closes In on an NIT Bid, 74-63

UCLA forward Reggie Miller has a definite opinion on whether UCLA should accept a bid to defend its NIT title. He votes “aye,” and he registered that vote Thursday night with a 41-point performance as he almost singlehandedly gave UCLA a 74-63 victory over Oregon State.

From the opening tip to the final buzzer, Miller was not a bit shy about finding himself an outside shot or moving his way through the defense to the hoop.

No need to ask his game plan. He was on the attack, taking the offensive controls, and he was doing it very aggressively. When Miller left the game with just 10 seconds on the clock, UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard gave him a hero’s welcome to the bench and told him, “That’s what I wanted.”

Miller said: “Before the game, Coach told me just to go for it. After the game, he told me he had always wanted me to go off like that. We figured that if the other guys saw me going after it like that, they would, too. He just wanted to know why it took me until the second-to-last game.”

UCLA has one game left in the regular season, at Oregon Saturday afternoon.

And, just maybe, UCLA also has an NIT tournament to play.

With its first victory on Oregon State’s court since 1979, the Bruins raised their record to 15-12 overall, 9-8 in the Pac-10. Oregon State dropped to 12-14 and 8-9 in conference. Losing to UCLA assured the Beavers of their first sub-.500 season since Coach Ralph Miller’s first season here in 1970-71.

Hazzard had said that the Bruins would consider an NIT bid if they finished over .500. Now that the winning season has been guaranteed, Hazzard said: “I’m getting closer to saying yes to an NIT bid. I’d like to see us play well against Oregon on Saturday before we decide.

“If we can beat Oregon, we’ll be 16-12. That would match last year’s record going into the NIT.”

Miller said Hazzard had told the team that he would not consider the NIT unless they showed, in the last two games, that they deserved it.

Then Miller went out and scored not only his own career high but the most points any Bruin has scored since Bill Walton had 44 in the 1973 NCAA championship game.

Miller made 16 of 25 shots (64%) and 9 of 10 free throws. His average went to 26.5 points a game.

All that with a jammed left thumb that he was icing as he talked to reporters after the game.

Miller said: “When we want to play, we can play with anybody. We just should have been doing that all year.”

Actually, the Bruins were not all that impressive in the early going. They took a 21-point lead in the first half and led, 35-20, at halftime because Oregon State was shooting 27.3%.

The Beavers, who were playing before a home crowd of 7,767 (the first time there has not been a sellout for a UCLA game at Gill Coliseum since the 1976 season), made a good run at a comeback. Midway through the second half, Oregon State scored six straight points, paused for two free throws by UCLA guard Corey Gaines, then ran off six more points to close within 49-46.

But, typically, Miller quieted the crowd with a three-point play.

Coach Ralph Miller had not centered his defense on Reggie. He explained: “Reggie can’t do all the scoring himself. We wanted to stop the other guys. But we didn’t do that in the first half, and that’s why we were so far behind.”

OSU guard Darrin Houstin hit a series of Miller-type long shots when the Beavers were making their run, but he finished with just 16 points, making 7 of 22 shots. The Beavers were led by center Jose Ortiz, who had 21 points.

Bruin Notes

Guard Corey Gaines, whose knee popped out (in a quick dislocation) during UCLA’s game last Monday night, surprised everyone by playing against Oregon State, and he was instrumental in the victory. Gaines, who played with a flexible brace on his right knee, played 16 minutes and was perfect on three shots from the field and five shots from the free-throw line. . . . With one Pac-10 game remaining, Reggie Miller is averaging 28.4 points in conference games. That would be a record. . . . Miller’s total of 482 points in conference games breaks the single-season record of 411 set by Don Collins of Washington State in 1980.