Shooters Miss in Shootout--Bruins Win It

With the Pacific 10 Conference lead up for grabs, UCLA paddled past Oregon State, 57-53, Thursday night in a game that proved there are two things the Beavers are unable to do:

(1) They can’t talk.

(2) They can’t shoot.

UCLA threw Jack Haley and a convoy of defenders at 6-10 Beaver center Jose Ortiz, then watched in awe as Oregon State made only 30% of its shots.

There are only two Pac-10 games left for UCLA (12-4), which is a half-game ahead of Arizona (11-4). The bad-shooting Beavers fell to 10-5.

“It’s in our hands now,” UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard said.

And now, it’s out of Oregon State’s hands.

The Beavers, who staged a boycott of the media leading up to the game, also boycotted the basket. They missed 42 of the 60 shots they attempted. Ortiz, a 67% shooter, made only 6 of 19 shots and although he had 13 rebounds, he was less of a factor than Haley, who actually turned out to be a hero.

Haley scored the first four UCLA points of the second half, then confidently dropped two free throws into the basket to give the Bruins a 56-50 lead with 34 seconds left.

Haley’s statistics were hardly overpowering--8 points, 4 rebounds, 3 turnovers--but he made good on his vow to get back at Ortiz for what Haley thought was a disparaging remark.

“You could tell after the first two minutes that there was no love lost between us,” Haley said.

There were plenty of bodies between them, though. A whole bunch of Bruins, who continually frustrated Ortiz and the rest of Oregon State’s shooters.

The only question was whether the UCLA defense was that good or the Beavers that bad.

Said Reggie Miller: “It was our defense.”

Said OSU Coach Ralph Miller: “We lost it because we didn’t shoot well.”

That’s one for each side, if you’re keeping score.

Now, here is UCLA’s Charles Rochelin: “They just happened to shoot badly. I’m not sure if it was our defense or they were tight.”

Either way, the Beavers put up their second-worst shooting performance in 17 years. The only worse one was a 22% effort two years ago.

Rochelin, who hardly ever has any trouble shooting, led the Bruins with 12 points and 9 rebounds. He scored twice on short jumpers after the Beavers had pulled into a 48-48 tie in the last three minutes.

“I like to shoot from anywhere on the court,” he said. “I just shoot. I don’t think too much about what I’m doing.”

Reggie Miller’s second half included one three-pointer, but they were the only points he scored during that span of a slow-tempo game that would have favored Oregon State if only the Beavers had shot better.

Hazzard spoke instead about Rochelin’s two important hoops. “Those are shots he’ll make 90% of the time,” Hazzard said. “On the rebound basket, I got up and was going to yell to move the ball around, but he shot it and made it, and I sat down.”

After Haley’s four quick points began the second half, Dave Immel’s jumper, Pooh Richardson’s breakaway layup on an assist from Immel and two free throws by Trevor Wilson, playing for the foul-troubled Rochelin, put UCLA on top, 35-27.

The first half wasn’t very good, but at least the score was close. UCLA took a 25-23 lead with them into the locker room, and the fans in Gill Coliseum breathed a sigh of relief. They felt a lot safer now that they hadn’t been struck by any of the basketballs the Bruins had been throwing around.

UCLA had nine turnovers in the first half, four by Richardson, who had only one point during the first 20 minutes. Miller had eight points.

The fact that the Bruins still held on to a lead, even though they couldn’t hold on to the ball, was truly remarkable.

Actually, there were a couple of other reasons why Oregon State didn’t have a lead. One was that the Beavers couldn’t have shot much worse if they had kicked the ball toward the basket. Oregon State’s marksmen missed 23 of 31 shots in the half, a low-water mark of 29%.

The Beavers also shanked 5 of the 11 free throws they tried, which meant that their only offense came from Ortiz, who was not exactly convincing everyone that Haley was wrong.

Ortiz shot 4 for 10 in the first half and 2 for 5 from the free throw line, working against a constant double-team and an occasional triple-team defense. The Bruin game plan was to play Ortiz very tightly and make the other Beavers beat them. In the end, that was the plan that worked.