Bruins Run Miller Out of Pauley : Showing No Mercy, UCLA Overwhelms His Beavers, 92-75

UCLA used the occasion of Ralph Miller’s final visit to Pauley Pavilion Sunday to present the veteran Oregon State basketball coach with a crystal clock and a piece of vasa sculpture.

The 69-year-old Miller, who will retire at the end of the season, undoubtedly would have preferred a more sentimental parting gift.

A victory, for instance, would have been the 667th of his career, enabling Miller to join John Wooden in sixth place on the all-time list.

Miller, though, took home only the hardware.

UCLA buried the cold-shooting Beavers, 92-75, giving Coach Jim Harrick his first career victory over Miller and enabling the Bruins to maintain a realistic chance of winning the Pacific 10 Conference championship.

The Bruins’ fourth straight victory improved their record to 14-5 overall and 9-2 in the Pac-10, leaving them within striking distance of Arizona, which is 11-1 in the conference after beating Washington, 85-68, Sunday.

UCLA will play Arizona twice in its last five games.

An Oregon State victory would have moved the Beavers (14-5, 7-4) into a three-way tie for second place with UCLA and Stanford and all but assured Arizona of winning its second straight conference championship.

But the Beavers, who beat UCLA, 82-69, last month and had lost just once in 11 games since Dec. 23, shot only 40.3% and were outrebounded, 44-32.

In last month’s game at Corvallis, Ore., Oregon State shot 62.7%, easily the best by a UCLA opponent this season.

“We got whipped good,” Miller said. “We could not handle their offense and we didn’t run our own offense very well.

“They got their running game started. And when you (allow) that, you’re always in trouble against UCLA. So, we certainly didn’t come close to playing as well as we can. UCLA played very well and deserved the victory. Period.”

Fair enough.

The Bruins did most of their damage under the basket.

“We wanted to try to make them stop us inside because, from what I’ve seen, that’s a tough thing for them to do,” Harrick said.

On this particular day, it was close to impossible.

UCLA’s starting forwards, Trevor Wilson and Don MacLean, each scored 26 points. Wilson made 10 of 16 shots and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds and MacLean made 12 of 20 shots to overtake Rod Foster as UCLA’s all-time leading freshman scorer.

Pooh Richardson added 18 points and nine assists for UCLA.

An 11-0 run by UCLA early in the second half included five points by Richardson, four by MacLean and a dunk by Wilson, giving the Bruins a 54-38 lead. UCLA later stretched its advantage to 26 points.

Richardson scored five points and MacLean scored four in an 11-0 run early in the second half that was capped by Wilson’s dunk and gave the Bruins a 54-38 lead. UCLA eventually stretched its lead to 26 points.

Not even the outside shooting of Gary Payton, who made six of nine 3-point shots and scored 23 points, could keep Oregon State close.

“We were pretty excited beforehand,” Wilson said. “We thought that if we played up to our ability we would have a pretty good time of it.”

Led by the enthusiastic Wilson, the Bruins played well enough to saddle Miller with his 20th career loss at Pauley Pavilion.

A major college coach for more than 37 seasons at Wichita State, Iowa and Oregon State, Miller won only four times in Westwood.

“We were really aggressive,” said MacLean, who also had eight rebounds, “and that translated into easy baskets.”

The day started on a cheerier note for Miller, who was given a standing ovation from the crowd of 8,636 as he and his wife, Jean, received their gifts just before tipoff from Harrick and his wife, Sally.

UCLA, though, ran out to a 37-32 halftime lead despite making only three of 10 free throws in the last 12 minutes of the half.

Then, the Bruins’ shooting improved markedly in the second half, when they made 22 of 33 shots, including eight of 11 by MacLean and six of seven by Wilson.

“We should be playing this way at this time of the year,” said Harrick, whose team will meet Arizona Feb. 16 at Tucson and March 4 in Pauley Pavilion. “I thought we played with great emotion.”

Also, they took care of the ball, making only eight turnovers, the least they’ve made since Dec. 7, when they made seven against Boston University, and 12 less than they made last month against the Beavers.

“That was the key because last time we killed ourselves against their press,” Wilson said.

This time, all they killed was Miller’s bon voyage.

Bruin Notes

The loss ended a five-game winning streak for Oregon State, which had also won three straight against UCLA. . . . Jim Harrick’s career record against Ralph Miller is 1-4, including an 0-3 record when Harrick coached at Pepperdine. . . . UCLA assistant coach Paul Landreaux stayed home with the flu. . . . Can UCLA beat Arizona? “I think, of all the teams in the conference, UCLA has the talent to do it,” said Oregon State’s Eric Knox, who scored 21 points Sunday. “They’re a lot better than they were a month ago.”

Don MacLean has 379 points in 19 games, a 19.9 average. Rod Foster scored 368 points in 32 games in the 1979-80 season, averaging 11.5 points. “When he gets the ball one-on-one around the basket, he’s very hard to defend,” Harrick said of MacLean. “I don’t know a lot of guys who can stop him down there.” . . . UCLA’s Kevin Walker had a career-high six assists, bringing his season total to 39. In his first two seasons at UCLA, Walker had only 16 assists in 56 games. . . . UCLA will play USC Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion.