UCLA Gets Last-Second House Call, 77-75 : Bruins Shock No. 4 Louisville on Official’s Controversial Goaltending Decision

UCLA’s mastery of Louisville in Pauley Pavilion, which now spans four games, continued Sunday on a shot that never went through the basket.

Is it any wonder the Cardinals have never won at Westwood?

UCLA won this time on a goaltending call by official Willis McJunkin, who ruled that Louisville’s Pervis Ellison batted away a last-second shot by Pooh Richardson as the ball made its downward arc toward the hoop.

The call, which even the partisan crowd of 12,547 would probably call charitable, gave UCLA a 77-75 victory.

It left Louisville stunned.

“I doubt if there’s even a UCLA fan in here who feels that was goaltending,” Louisville Coach Denny Crum calmly told a radio audience back home. “That ball was hit on the way up.

“I hate to get one taken away from (us) like that. But it happens. The (official) made a mistake. I don’t think it was intentional. He just made a mistake. The guy made an honest mistake.

“But you hate to have your kids play that hard and come back and then have a call like that decide the game.

“The players ought to decide it.”

Louisville, which had overcome a 13-point second-half deficit, was setting up for a final shot when Kenny Payne made an errant pass toward mid-court. Teammate LaBradford Smith had cut toward the basket.

Fewer than 10 seconds remained when Richardson chased down the loose ball along the left sideline, drove toward the left corner and stopped to shoot from about 18 feet out.

“Coach told us that if we had a break situation, don’t bother calling time out,” Richardson said. “He said, ‘Just get the basket.’ ”

Richardson did--eventually.

His first shot, though, sailed over the far side of the rim.

Smith hit his elbow as he shot, Richardson said.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter because, in the scramble for the rebound, the ball hit several players before popping out to Richardson, who charged toward the hoop after he shot and took the rebound just outside the paint.

With only a second or two remaining, Richardson quickly let loose about a six-foot shot, only to have the 6-foot-9 Ellison rise to deflect it.

“I didn’t know what happened,” Richardson said. “I just saw that Pervis had his hand on the ball.”

Was it goaltending?

Ellison said he wasn’t sure.

“I was lobbying for it,” Richardson said. “And when they said, ‘Count it,’ I just left.”

McJunkin signaled that the shot was good, then did so again after huddling for only a few seconds with his partners, Tom Harrington and Booker Turner. As Crum ran onto the floor to protest, McJunkin ran off toward the locker room.

All three officials later told a pool reporter that Ellison deflected the shot as it made its downward arc. However, television replays clearly showed that the ball was on its way up.

UCLA Coach Jim Harrick wasn’t about to quibble. The victory over the fourth-ranked Cardinals (17-5) was UCLA’s sixth straight, improved the Bruins’ record to 16-5 and probably will vault them into the top 20.

Harrick said he hadn’t seen the game-winning play.

Said the Bruins’ first-year coach: “I saw (Richardson’s first shot) go sailing over the basket and I’m saying, ‘My lands, he didn’t miss it that far?’ I didn’t even hear the whistle blow (in the confusion that followed).

“And then I see our guys jumping up and down and running to the locker room. I looked at (assistant Paul) Landreaux and said, ‘What happened?’ ”

UCLA had survived, that’s what.

Through the first 30 minutes, the Bruins had threatened to run away from the Cardinals, building a 58-45 lead with 11:08 left.

To that point, a missed shot wasn’t Louisville’s best play, as Harrick, marveling at the Cardinals’ athletic ability, had said last week.

Louisville had one offensive rebound in 29 minutes.

But, facing their worst loss of the season, the Cardinals then started to rebound better and outscored UCLA, 13-0, in 3:14.

Louisville, which got 22 points from Payne and 19 points and 12 rebounds from Ellison, eventually forged a 73-69 lead. But, after UCLA’s Darrick Martin made a three-point shot to make it 73-72 with 1:53 left, Louisville’s Keith Williams dropped a pass out of bounds.

The Cardinals got a break a moment later, though, when Richardson lost control of the ball as he went up for a jumper. Ellison batted the ball ahead to Smith, whose rim-rattling dunk gave Louisville a 75-72 lead.

Trevor Wilson, who led UCLA with 21 points and 13 rebounds, then made two free throws to make it 75-74 and Smith then threw a pass out of bounds.

A free throw by Martin with 41 seconds left tied the score and gave Louisville one last chance to make another turnover.

Actually, the Cardinals wanted to get the ball in the hands of a guard and then have Payne and Ellison post up underneath, but Payne threw it away.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t control the ball any better than that,” Crum said. “We didn’t do a very good job with it.

“You get what you earn.”

And, in UCLA’s case, perhaps even some you don’t earn.

Bruin Notes

All five UCLA starters scored in double figures, including freshman guard Darrick Martin, who had 17 points, four assists and three steals and made about a 40-foot shot from mid-court at the end of the half, and freshman forward Don MacLean, who made seven of 12 shots and had 16 points and seven rebounds in only 24 minutes. . . . Keith Williams made five of six shots and scored 13 points for Louisville.

Trevor Wilson made only seven of 18 shots and Pooh Richardson made only four of 12 as UCLA shot .391, its worst shooting performance of the season, but outrebounded Louisville, 43-38. . . . Louisville wound up with nine offensive rebounds, eight of them in the last 11 minutes. . . . UCLA, which leads the series, 8-4, is 0-3 against Louisville in Freedom Hall at Louisville. . . . UCLA will play Arizona State Thursday night at Tempe, Ariz.