This Time, UCLA Comes Close, 89-86 : Bruins Upset by Officiating in Quest to Upset Arizona

It might not seem so to historians, who judge only the numbers, but a three-point loss is usually more difficult to take than a 38-point loss.

UCLA found that out Saturday at Pauley Pavilion, where it seemingly gained at least partial atonement for its greatest embarrassment, battling Arizona to the end in an 89-86 loss in front of 12,729.

Only two weeks ago at Tucson, UCLA was vaporized by the No. 1-ranked Wildcats, 102-64, suffering the worst loss in its history.

Coach Jim Harrick, though, shrugged that one off.

“Those things happen,” he said.

The latest loss produced a more emotional Harrick.

An outburst by the UCLA coach in the first half, in fact, may have cost the Bruins a victory, although Harrick preferred to unload the blame on the officiating crew of Charles Range, Richie Ballesteros and Jerry White.

“You expect people to control the game,” Harrick said of the officials. “Their job is to control the game.”

That, seemingly, is what they tried to do when UCLA’s demonstrative center, Kevin Walker, vehemently protested after he was called for fouling Arizona’s Anthony Cook with 15 minutes 49 seconds left in the half.

Range slapped Walker with a technical foul and Harrick flew into a rage along the sideline, prompting White to call a technical on Harrick.

As Harrick’s diatribe continued, Cook made one of two free throws, Sean Elliott made three straight and, after Arizona retained possession after Elliott’s free throws, Elliott made a baseline jumper.

Harrick did little more than scream and pout in the next few minutes as the Wildcats put together a 17-4 run that gave them a 25-14 lead.

What was it, specifically, that had angered him so?

“That they would call a technical on Kevin Walker,” Harrick said, his voice rising. “It’s an emotional game. You mean to tell me they didn’t talk about that? That it was going to be a real high emotional game?”

Range, Harrick said, should have attempted to calm Walker instead of instinctively signaling for a technical.

“I said, ‘You’ve got to control the players on the floor,’ ” Harrick said. “ ‘If you don’t, don’t come and officiate.’ ”

UCLA, playing about as well as it can play against a team that reached the Final Four last season and wrapped up its second consecutive Pacific 10 Conference championship this week, battled back the rest of the way, catching the Wildcats three times in the second half, but taking the lead.

“That’s indicative of our inexperience in games of this magnitude,” said Harrick, whose team will take a 19-8 record into its game against Washington in the second round of the Pac-10 tournament Friday night in the Forum. “We self-destructed every single time we tied it. We’d come down and turn it over. Or we wanted to go one-on-one. That’s not our game. Our game is sharing the ball and passing it.”

Trevor Wilson, who made 15 of 23 shots and led the Bruins with 30 points and nine rebounds, pulled the Bruins even for the first time at 54-54 with 14:20 left, but Arizona then scored seven consecutive points.

The last time the score was tied, 65-65, with 8:40 left, Wilson was called for intentionally fouling Jud Buechler away from the ball at the same time that Charles Rochelin was fouling Cook.

Harrick didn’t think much of that call, either, and it provided another turning point for the Wildcats.

Cook missed both of his free throws, but Buechler made his two and then Elliott, who led the Wildcats with 26 points, connected on a three-point shot that gave Arizona a 70-65 lead with 8:24 left.

UCLA twice fell behind by seven points after that, but continued to rally, closing to within 88-86 on Wilson’s follow shot with 21 seconds left before Rochelin was called for an intentional foul against Arizona’s Ken Lofton with 11 seconds remaining.

That call irked Harrick, too, especially after Lofton missed both free throws, but the Wildcats retained possession.

Elliott was fouled with eight seconds left as he took the inbounds pass and made the front end of a one-and-one to make it 89-86.

When Elliott missed his second shot, though, UCLA’s Don MacLean rebounded and the Bruins had a chance to pull even as freshman guard Darrick Martin brought the ball up the floor.

Pooh Richardson, who made four of five three-point shots and scored 21 points for the Bruins, seemed the logical choice to attempt a three-pointer, but as Richardson looked on unhappily, Martin spun around a defender and put up an air ball from three-point range.

“I would rather have had Pooh take the shot,” Harrick said. “Darrick knows that, too, because it happened in the Notre Dame game (when Martin missed a three-point attempt at the end of an 82-79 loss). I want Pooh to take those shots this year. Darrick can take them next year.”

Said Richardson: “I was screaming for the ball, but in the crowd and the course of the game, he didn’t hear me and he didn’t see me.”

Harrick probably wished he could say the same in regard to the officials.

“It’s a shame we didn’t win that game,” he said.

Bruin Notes

Arizona ended the regular season with a 24-3 record, 17-1 in the Pacific 10. . . . UCLA, which will play Washington Friday at 9 p.m. in the Forum, was 13-5 in Pac-10 games. . . . Pooh Richardson’s eight assists gave him 800 in his career. Only 10 other players in National Collegiate Athletic Assn. history have accumulated 800 or more. . . . Don MacLean, who scored 14 points, needs 11 points to become the Pac-10’s all-time freshman scoring leader. Stanford’s Todd Lichti scored 516 points in the 1985-86 season. . . . UCLA was 12-2 in Pauley Pavilion.

Coach Jim Harrick was angered by a reporter who asked if he believed that UCLA’s performance Saturday assured the Bruins a bid in the NCAA tournament. “A bid?” he said, his voice rising. “Are you kidding? Do you read the rankings? My gosh. There aren’t 25 teams in the country that have better records than we do and have played the schedule we’ve played. Yeah, we’re going. I’m not worried about going. Hell, I’ll worry about winning it.”