Immel Gives UCLA a Second-Half Lift in Win Over Arizona

UCLA guard Dave Immel thinks one of the side effects of a diet that consists of--among other things--pizza, doughnuts, twinkies and cheeseburgers is that it makes his legs a little tired, thus affecting his jump shot.

But those legs looked pretty lively Thursday night. Immel didn’t miss a shot in the second half on his way to a 21-point evening which concluded with an 81-65 UCLA victory over Arizona before a crowd of 11,864 at Pauley Pavilion.

The win kept UCLA tied for first place in the Pacific 10 Conference with Oregon State, which beat Oregon, 64-63, Thursday night. Both teams are 10-3 in conference and if everything goes as planned when it’s time for the Bruins to meet the Beavers next Thursday night in Corvallis, the Pacific 10 regular-season title may be on the line. The Bruins play the Pac-10’s dueling doormats, USC and Arizona State, before Oregon State.

Against Arizona, the Bruins flexed their backcourt muscle, and although Immel had the most points, Pooh Richardson contributed 10 points, six assists and five rebounds.

UCLA, which led 40-30, at halftime, shot off to a 17-point lead in the opening minutes of the second half on two arching jumpers by Immel.

“My legs have been kind of tired, but I finally got into my rhythm in the second half when I hit that first shot,” he said.”

One of those two by Immel was a three-pointer, followed by a jumper by Charles Rochelin that reached the basket on the arc of a clothesline.

Arizona kept in visual contact with the Bruins by sticking close to the offensive backboards, but then the Bruins put it out of sight.

Sean Elliott, the Wildcats’ designated shooter, scored on a short jumper to keep Arizona within 13 points, 58-45, but in just over six minutes, UCLA had increased its led to 72-49.

The Wildcats have a nice inside game with Elliott (19 points) and Tom Tolbert (17 points, 13 rebounds), but since Steve Kerr’s knee injury has made him unavailable this season, their backcourt hasn’t been able to keep pace and that’s the area UCLA eventually exploited.

Richardson said he wasn’t surprised. “I thought coming in that our backcourt would hurt them very, very much,” he said. “We had the advantage.”

Freshman Greg Foster committed four turnovers in 19 minutes, but he also dominated the backboards briefly and had eight rebounds. UCLA still allowed Arizona 22 offensive rebounds, 8 by Tolbert and 5 by forward Anthony Cook.

But this time, the game was won on UCLA’s outside shooting, set up by the fast break.

“They ran their break to perfection,” Elliott said.

Immel, whose jumper was in the deep freeze in the first half, had already pulled it out and defrosted it when the game started turning.

Immel scored on a drive, then assisted Montel Hatcher on a breakaway, 62-45.

There was more. Immel’s layup on an assist by Trevor Wilson, two free throws by Richarson and Craig Jackson’s driving hoop got it to 68-47.

There was still more. Immel drove for another layup and Jackson added another on a breakaway.

There was even more, but by then, it didn’t matter. The Bruins had a 72-49 lead and the Wildcats put themselves out of the game by scoring four points between 10:42 and 4:58.

Wildcat Coach Lute Olson gave UCLA’s leading scorer for the season, Reggie Miller, something different to look at in the early going by changing the Arizona defense nearly every time Miller crossed midcourt.

The Wildcat defense appeared in many guises. It was a straight man-to-man. It was a straight zone. It was a zone except for Craig McMillan, who took Miller.

But whatever the Arizona defense was, it worked, at least for awhile.

With 2:22 left before halftime, Miller was still almost silent, so very un-Reggie-like. He had four points up to then and the Bruins were grasping a 32-28 lead.

Then Miller began to assert himself against an Arizona defense that was, this time, playing a straight zone. Miller scored UCLA’s last eight points of the half, a spasm of offense that began with a strong offensive rebound basket.

Wildcat guard Ken Lofton, who had his previous shot blocked by Jackson, charged into Richardson, which meant that the ball would be back in Miller’s hands. But not for long.

Miller, who finished with 15 points, rainbowed a three-pointer for a 37-28 lead. After Tolbert dropped a short jumper, Miller dispatched another three-pointer from Reggie Range and UCLA went into the locker room at halftime with a 10-point lead that was only going to get bigger.

Miller, who bruised his shoulder, hounded Elliott into missing 15 of the 22 shots he tried. “They just stuck Reggie on me,” Elliott said. “I was getting by him, but someone else was there to challenge my shot.”

Bruin Notes

Arizona Coach Lute Olson fears that both his team as well as UCLA may be hurt by playing too tough a schedule and would be overlooked for the NCAA tournament, provided neither one is the Pacific-10 regular season champion or wins the conference tournament. “We could be penalized for playing too tough a schedule,” Olson said. “That could hurt our record and might catch people’s eyes as far as post-season play.” Arizona’s nonconference schedule has included Nevada Las Vegas, Georgetown, Illinois and Iowa. The Wildcats lost all four. UCLA is 2-2 in its four games against North Carolina, St. John’s, Temple and Notre Dame and the Bruins also have a game with Louisville, Feb. 28. Said Olson: “When you look at Clemson, I don’t even recognize some of the teams they played.” The 22-2 Tigers, who are ranked No. 11 by the AP, have won non-SEC games this season against Georgia St., UNC-Asheville, Prairie View A&M;, Armstrong St., Delaware St., Hawaii Pacific, Florida International and Winthrop. Olson sees a scenario in which only two Pac-10 teams receive NCAA tournament invitations. “If there’s a clean-cut top two teams and the conference tournament is won by one of them, then we’d be in real danger of having only two.”

PACIFIC 10 STANDINGS

Conference All Games W L W L Pct UCLA 10 3 16 5 .762 Oregon St. 10 3 18 4 .818 Arizona 8 4 13 9 .591 California 8 6 15 11 .577 Washington 7 6 13 11 .542 Oregon 7 7 13 10 .565 Stanford 6 8 12 11 .522 Washington St. 4 9 8 14 .364 USC 3 10 8 14 .364 Arizona St. 3 10 7 14 .333