When Going Gets Tough, Oregon State Beats UCLA

UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard was begging for a technical foul, but the officials had the good sense not to look in his direction.

Oregon State Coach Ralph Miller admitted when it was all over that loose teeth and bloody towels did indicate that the game got a little bit physical.

But the crowd of 7,612 in Gill Coliseum on Sunday loved it. Oregon State’s 73-68 victory over UCLA, completing a sweep of the series, was as intense and as in-your-face as college basketball can get.

And the Beavers came back from 12 points down in the first half to do it.

Oregon State guard Eric Knox kept turning to face Bruin guard Pooh Richardson before he raised his fists in the air to celebrate each of the three free throws he made after Trevor Wilson fouled him with 37 seconds to play. He got three shots because Wilson, who fouled out on the play, jumped up in the air and said something to official Jerry White that earned him a quick technical.

Hazzard was trying mightily not to criticize the officials after the game, but when he was asked why, when his team usually is able to play a pretty physical game, they seemed to get frazzled and frustrated this time out, he said: “It depends on how physical things get. . . . If it’s within the rules, yes, we can play a physical game. . . . All things were not equal out there. We had to live with that.”

Now they have to live with a setback in the Pac-10 standings. Oregon State jumped ahead of UCLA, taking over third place with a record of 6-4 (and 12-7 overall), while UCLA dropped into a tie for fourth place with Arizona State at 6-5. The Bruins are under .500 again, at 10-11 overall.

But the Beavers had to rally from a cold and, in the opinion of Miller, ugly start. In the first half the Beavers shot 37.5%. The only reason they were able to pull into a 27-27 tie just before the end of the first half was that the Bruins suddenly went colder.

Miller said: “I thought we were very fortunate to be tied. UCLA didn’t score on their last 11 or 12 opportunities, and that enabled us to catch up.”

In fact, UCLA was shut out over the last six minutes of the half. Kevin Walker gave the Bruins a 27-17 lead with 6:07 left in the half when he scored on an inbounds pass. And that was the last of the Bruins’ scoring until Richardson opened the scoring in the second half with a driving layup.

The Bruins filled the final minutes of the first half with such highlights as a five-second call against guard Dave Immel, a turnover by guard Gerald Madkins as he tried to penetrate the Beavers’ tight defense, Walker’s miss from three-point range, a charging foul on Wilson . . . and an assortment of other missed shots.

It was also in the final minutes of the first half that Miller walked onto the court to let the officials know that, with Earl Martin bleeding from the mouth he needed a moment to get another player on the court, and Hazzard walked onto the court, which is a violation which calls for a technical foul, to see how serious Walker’s injury was as he game off the court bleeding from the ear.

Hazzard was not looking for a technical foul at that juncture, but later he gave the officials the choke sign as he left the floor at halftime. In the second half, he returned a ball to referee Willis McJunkin a few feet too high so that McJunkin had to run it down, and he later told McJunkin: “You’re trying to take this away from us.”

Any of those actions could have resulted in a technical foul, but the officials weren’t biting this day.

Asked what he thought of Miller going onto the court, Hazzard said, “He’s a Hall of Famer. He has those privileges.”

In the final tally, both teams were called for the same number of fouls, but UCLA scored 13 points on 16 free throws and Oregon State scored 19 points on 23 free throws.

Oregon State’s key player, point guard Gary Payton, picked up his fourth foul with 5:50 to play and with Oregon State leading, 60-53. Miller immediately took Payton out in favor of Allan Celestine, but he called a timeout just eight seconds later and put Payton back in.

That gamble paid off. Payton and Richardson were having quite a standoff out there, and no one else was going to hold a hot Richardson in check. Payton made it to the end.

Richardson led the Bruins with 19 points (hitting 7 of 11 from the field), along with seven assists to become the Bruins’ all-time leader. Hazzard said, “Pooh played a great game, probably his best of the season.”

Payton said: “When it got down to pressure time, and we had it tied up, Coach told me to handle the ball and control the team, and that’s what I did.”

Payton finished with 14 points, all in the second half, and said that his shots finally started to drop once center Bill Sherwood got his game going and forced the Bruins to concentrate more on the inside game. Sherwood finished with 16.

Knox finished with 19--the team leader after he made those three free throws that Richardson had told him he would surely miss.

Knox said: “I don’t know if this was the most intense game of the season, but it sure was the most emotional.”

And one of the most physical. Although Miller said that, somewhere up in the Pac-10 hierarchy, there has been a move afoot for the last couple of years to persuade the officials to “let the boys play.”

Miller said: “The coaches used to think that we played too nit-picky in the Pac-10, and that it handicapped the Pac-10 teams once they got into NCAA play against some of the more physical teams . . .

“Of course, all officials call things differently. They see things differently. If they start letting too much contact go, that’s when it gets out of hand and you have fights. Like the physical play in the NBA leads to fights. We haven’t had that.”

Bruin Notes

With seven assists Sunday afternoon, UCLA guard Pooh Richardson became the all-time assist leader with a total of 527. The record had been 523, set by Ralph Jackson in 1981-84. . . . Craig Jackson’s nine rebounds against Oregon State was a season high. . . . Oregon State had not swept UCLA since 1984. The last time Oregon State swept both USC and UCLA was 1981.