Only 3,235 See Bruins Give Hazzard First Win in Seattle

Hec Edmundson Pavilion no longer holds that maddening edge over UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard. On Thursday night, Hec Edmundson Pavilion was nothing more than a big, old, drafty gymnasium with not enough fans to fill its wooden bleachers.

Hazzard’s UCLA basketball team beat the old gym’s University of Washington basketball team, 97-87, in a key Pacific 10 Conference game that put the Bruins alone in fourth place with a conference record of 9-6. Arizona has already clinched the title, and Stanford and Oregon State are tied for second place with records of 10-5.

The Bruins evened their record at 13-13 overall. Washington dropped to 7-17 and 3-12.

There were just 3,235 fans at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. The place was so empty, the small Bruin contingent could be heard. In fact, the place was so empty that Hazzard could hear a member of the Husky band shouting insults at his nice gray suit.

But he didn’t care. Not when he was winning. In his fourth year as the UCLA head coach, Hazzard finally has his first victory here.

It didn’t come easily. Even with Trevor Wilson having one of his best in a series of good efforts; even with the Bruins shooting 73.9% in the second half, 63% for the game, and even with the Bruins getting 25 points on free throws, the Huskies managed to make a game of it.

From what he saw, Hazzard doesn’t expect future victories to come any easier.

“I’ll tell you what about this (Washington) team, they are a good young basketball team, and they have their best years ahead of them. Right now they don’t have the consistency and experience, but they are a team to be wary of come tournament time. I’ve seen them show some brilliance this year.”

They showed some good spurts against the Bruins, coming back time after time to make a game of what kept promising to turn into a rout.

Washington’s last threatening run picked up steam while Hazzard was giving Trevor Wilson a breather midway through the second half. When Wilson sat down, right after committing a charging foul, the Bruins were ahead, 62-54. When Hazzard called time out 3 1/2 minutes later and put Wilson back in, the Huskies were within two points, 68-66.

Hazzard said that he wanted to get Wilson some rest so that he’d be at full force for the final minutes.

“Trevor has been playing 40 minutes for us and he’s been starting to show fatigue at the end,” Hazzard said. “We need him in the game when the game is on the line.”

Wilson, of course, was suffering no end of frustration during his breather. He said: “As a player, you don’t ever think you need rest. We’d all like to be out there 40 minutes. . . . I thought we let them back in the game. We’ve had that problem all season. It’s frustration to sit and see it dwindle away.”

Down the stretch, Wilson got the key rebounds that forced Washington to keep fouling--and guard Dave Immel kept sinking the free throws to keep the game out of the Huskies’ reach.

Immel, one of six Bruins in double figures, sank six free throws in the last 1:35 to finish with 16 points.

Wilson also had 16 points, contributing strongly to the Bruins’ impressive field goal percentage by going 7 for 7 from the field himself. Wilson also had eight rebounds and nine assists.

The Bruins were led by center Kelvin Butler, who had 21 points (8 of 10 from the field).

Wilson was sending a lot of his assists Butler’s way. Wilson said: “Kelvin has some of the nicest post moves I’ve ever seen.”

Hazzard added: “Any time a team shoots 73% the way we did in the second half, it shows unselfishness and good team play. We’re finally hitting the right person at the right time. People are finding Kelvin. And he’s making himself available. Kelvin has a nice touch on the ball once he gets it.”

Butler was getting the ball almost every time the Bruins took the time to set up a shot. Almost as often, they were scoring off their fast break.

As Washington Coach Andy Russo put it: “We gave up way too many easy shots. Early, we did a terrible job of getting back. Forcing the pace is what they try to do. We worked on that all week. When you see their break working well, that’s a lack of execution on our part.

“We got it to fairly much a half-court game, then our half-court defense was as bad as our transition defense.”

The Washington offense was there, though, led by guard Eldridge Recasner, who had 27 points. Before he fouled out, freshman forward Mike Hayward had 19 points. Todd Lautenbach came off the bench to score 16, helping the feeble Husky field goal percentage (.464 from the field) by hitting 7 of 8.

Russo thought that the Huskies had hurt themselves most by getting behind by nine points in the first half.

UCLA led, 44-35, after blowing a seven-point lead and letting the Huskies take a 17-16 lead after a three-point shot by Hayward. The Bruins rebuilt their lead slowly, finally sprinting ahead in the last seconds of the half on a steal and fast-break basket by Pooh Richardson, two free throws by guard Gerald Madkins and a three-point shot by Kevin Walker.

Russo said: “I think if we could have kept it within two or three points, it would have been different. It’s hard to keep digging out of the hole. When you come down the floor behind, it’s tough to get back and play defense. If you can play with a lead, you can feel much better about yourself and get some adrenaline going.

“We came back a couple of times, but then we’d have a defensive lapse and we couldn’t sustain it.”

Bruin Notes

Kelvin Butler’s 21 points was a career high. . . . Trevor Wilson has had at least 8 rebounds in 14 of 15 Pac-10 games. His 9 assists were a career high. . . . UCLA, which has won 9 of its last 12 Pac-10 games, will play at Washington State Saturday.