UCLA Hopes to Repay California in Pacific 10 Finale

In the regular-season finale this afternoon at Pauley Pavilion, the UCLA basketball team will attempt to purge from memory its Pac-10 opener.

UCLA will finish its conference season with the same team that got the Bruins off to such an abysmal start. On Dec. 21, at Berkeley, Cal beat UCLA, 73-60.

Losing by 13 points to a conference opponent is bad enough. But it got worse as the season progressed and Cal proved to be one of the weakest teams in the conference. Cal’s win over the Bruins stands out as its most impressive feat of the season. By far.

UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard frowns and shakes his head at the very mention of the opener.

“I can easily say that was the worst performance for our team all season,” Hazzard said. “I was very disappointed in every area of our game. And then it made it tougher to watch Cal lose the next seven in a row.

“It was absolutely ugly.

“The only way to rectify that is to come out here Sunday and give 100% effort at both ends of the court.”

Cal (8-18 overall, 5-12 in the Pac-10) lost to USC, 63-46, Thursday night.

UCLA (15-13, 11-6), which has won three straight, is coming off a decisive victory over Stanford and is two games over .500 for the first time this season.

The Bruins had five starters in double figures against Stanford, once again getting a strong effort from senior center Kelvin Butler, who has really come through since the transfer of 7-foot sophomore Greg Foster. Forward Trevor Wilson is consistently asserting himself. Charles Rochelin is coming off the bench to add instant offense and freshman guard Gerald Madkins is coming off the bench to add defensive help.

Bruin Notes

UCLA’s game against Cal today at 3 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion will be televised, live, on Ch. 2. It also will be broadcast live on KMPC radio (710 AM). . . . Cal’s leading scorer, Matt Beeuwsaert, a 6-6 junior forward who is averaging 13.9 points a game, missed Thursday night’s game with a sprained arch in his foot suffered last week against Oregon. His status for today’s game is not known. . . . Cal Coach Lou Campanelli is 2-4 against UCLA. Besides the decisive upset in the first game of this season, Campanelli has the distinction of winning his first game ever against the Bruins, a game in which UCLA’s 52-game winning streak over Cal was broken. Both wins were at Cal, which has never won at Pauley Pavilion.