UCLA Holds Its Breath and Holds Off Huskies, 58-56

UCLA survived a dreadful second half to beat Washington, 58-56, in a Pacific 10 Conference opener Thursday night.

Before 5,230 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, the Bruins made only 26.1% of their shots in the second half and missed the front end of one-and-one free-throw situations five times in the last 1:45, squandering most of what had been a 12-point lead with 2:53 left.

They won, though, when a three-point shot by Washington center Mark West bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

Was Jim Harrick worried as West launched his shot?

“Not at all,” the Bruin coach said. “He had never shot (a three-point shot) and never made one. You want to check? I’ve got the stats in my pocket. I read them before the game.

“So, when he went up, I walked down to shake his hand.”

His thankful players ran off.

“To be honest with you, when he went up for the shot, I thought, ‘I can’t believe it,’ ” said Don MacLean, who led the Bruins with 16 points and 10 rebounds. “I was thinking that we’d lost.”

If they had, it would have been difficult to accept.

UCLA led, 56-44, before Eldridge Recasner led a furious Washington rally that was made possible by UCLA’s poor free-throw shooting.

His 18-foot jump shot after a missed free throw by Trevor Wilson pulled the Huskies to within 56-47, and a three-point shot by Mike Hayward after a missed free throw by Darrick Martin made it 56-50 with 1:03 left.

Then, after Gerald Madkins missed a free throw, Recasner made an improbable three-point shot from the left side--he fell into the first row of seats as he launched the ball--with 39 seconds left.

MacLean’s two free throws with 17 seconds left increased UCLA’s lead to 58-53, but Recasner--again with a defender “right in his shorts,” as MacLean said--then made another three-point shot with 11 seconds left.

The Huskies fouled Martin, whose missed free throw with six seconds remaining was rebounded by West as the crowd came to its feet.

West got the ball to Recasner, who led the Huskies with 20 points. But as Recasner crossed half court, the Bruins converged on him, forcing him to pass the ball back to West, who was at the top of the key.

“The thing I liked was that our our team didn’t let Eldridge Recasner take the last shot,” Harrick said. “They were smart enough, without me calling time out, not to let him have the shot.”

Lucky, too, that his only option was to pass to West, who, as Harrick noted, has never made a three-point shot in four years at Washington.

He hadn’t even attempted one since his freshman year.

Against UCLA, West wasn’t even supposed to play. An ankle injury limited him to 10 minutes, during which he failed to score and pulled down only one rebound. He attempted only one other shot before his potential game-winner.

“It was like the Santa Clara game--just win, baby,” said Harrick, whose team survived a poor game to beat the Broncos, 66-62, last Saturday.

For a while, it looked as if the Bruins would just romp, baby.

They jumped to a 16-2 lead. While the Huskies missed their first six shots and made five turnovers in the first five minutes, the Bruins made eight of 10 shots and looked much sharper than they had against Santa Clara.

Then, after Recasner made two free throws, UCLA ran off 10 more points.

UCLA increased its lead to 29-12 before Washington scored nine unanswered points, the last two on a spectacular flying dunk by former Crenshaw High standout Dion Brown, to wake up the slumbering crowd.

Brown, who had 15 points and 11 rebounds, then intercepted a pass and drove hard to the basket, but missed a twisting layup.

Martin ended the Huskies’ surge--and quieted the crowd--by making a driving, 10-foot bank shot from the key.

UCLA shot 60.9% in the half and led at halftime, 33-24.

The Bruins, though, went cold after the intermission, opening the second half by making only two of their first 17 shots.

Washington took advantage, cutting its deficit to 39-37 with 12:41 left, when the acrobatic Brown banked in a tip-in to cap an 11-3 run, but the Huskies steadily fell behind after that until UCLA started missing its foul shots.

Bruin Notes

Though Pacific 10 teams are allowed to bring only 12 players on conference trips, UCLA Coach Jim Harrick brought freshman center Rodney Odom to Washington. Odom will redshirt this season, but Harrick said: “I want him to be with us and understand everything we do.” Walk-on Jeff Bronner was left home. . . . Carlton Gray, a cornerback on the UCLA football team, will meet with Coach Terry Donahue before deciding if he will join the Bruin basketball team, Harrick said. Gray, a freshman from Cincinnati, was a high school All-American in basketball last season.