UCLA Experiences Technical Difficulty, 87-79

Not long after Trevor Wilson lost his temper Thursday night, UCLA lost its share of the Pacific 10 Conference lead.

The events at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion were not unrelated.

Stanford beat the Bruins, 87-79, before a sellout crowd of 7,500 in a game that turned with 2 minutes 56 seconds left, when UCLA’s Wilson flew into a rage and was assessed a technical foul.

Only moments earlier, with UCLA trailing, 71-70, Wilson stole the ball from guard Kenny Ammann of the Cardinal, drove the length of the floor and, ignoring teammate Darrick Martin on the opposite wing, missed a layup.

Believing that he had been fouled, Wilson snapped at official Mark Reischling as both made their way back down the court.

Then, after fouling Cardinal guard John Patrick near midcourt, Wilson threw his arms into the air and screamed again at Reischling.

Reischling called a technical.

Patrick then made two free throws, Ammann made two more and, after the Cardinal also retained possession of the ball, Patrick made a baseline jumper that increased the Cardinal lead to 77-70.

UCLA was never able to recover and fell to 5-1 in the Pac-10, a game behind unbeaten Oregon State, which beat Washington State, 79-64.

“Thank you, Trevor,” the crowd chanted in the final moments.

Wilson refused comment.

“I don’t have anything good to say,” he said as he signed autographs afterward, “so I can’t say anything.”

Coach Jim Harrick, however, lashed out at Reischling.

“If you can’t control the game,” Harrick said, “then you’ve got to get out. You just don’t do that. You’ve got to be kidding. That’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing for our conference to have a guy do something like that in a game on national television (ESPN).”

Should Reischling have ignored Wilson’s outburst?

“You let the players decide the outcome of the game,” Harrick said. “If you’re going to call a technical, you call it early and control the game. Obviously, that didn’t happen.

“I know Trevor feels bad, but you’ve got to understand: He steals the ball, goes down and gets fouled. The guy just grabs his arm in front of the same officials and (the official) doesn’t make that call.

“But now he’s visibly upset ‘cause he missed a layup, too.”

The technical foul overshadowed a big effort by Stanford, which improved to 11-3 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-10.

The Cardinal won despite getting only five points in the second half from Adam Keefe, who led Stanford with 23 overall. Ammann scored 21 points and Patrick scored 18, making nine of 10 free throws.

UCLA (11-3) was led by Wilson, who made 14 of 21 shots and scored a season-high 31 points, including 20 in the second half. Don MacLean scored 21 for the Bruins and Martin had 14 points and six assists.

Harrick described Stanford this week as a mirror image of Arizona, so it wasn’t surprising that UCLA started the game in a zone defense.

Stanford’s strength is its inside game, especially in the person of Keefe, a 6-9 sophomore from Irvine who came in as the Pac-10’s No. 2 scorer and No. 1 rebounder, averaging 21 points and 10.5 rebounds a game.

Harrick, though, was concerned that Patrick and Ammann might make him regret his move. “I’m not sure their guards are as good as Arizona’s,” Harrick said, “but they’re pretty good here at home.”

His fears were soon realized as Stanford made its first four shots, opening a 10-6 lead in the first three minutes on a jumper from the wing by Deshon Wingate, a layup by Keefe and a pair of three-point bombs by Ammann, a junior from Huntington Beach who had made 46% of his three-pointers before Thursday.

Harrick quickly switched to a man-to-man but was still faced with the dilemma that has plagued everyone else in the Pac-10: How do you stop Keefe?

Through the first half, the Bruins couldn’t find an answer.

The first time the Cardinal had the ball after UCLA switched out its zone, Keefe rebounded a missed shot by Andrew Vlahov, was fouled by Bruin center Keith Owens and made a pair of free throws.

The second time, he took a pass from Wingate and slammed in a two-handed dunk. Moments later, he was fouled again and made two more free throws.

He scored 18 points before halftime and Stanford led, 43-38.

The Cardinal never trailed in the half and twice built its lead to 10 points, at 28-18 and 35-25, but UCLA cut its deficit to 41-38 by putting together an 8-2 run in which Wilson scored six points.

Keefe then got tangled up inside as Stanford worked for the last shot of the half, losing the ball. Wingate, though, picked it up and made a layup at the buzzer.

The Cardinal shot 62.5% from the floor and 90.9% from the line in the half.

The second half started with Gerald Madkins assigned to stay in front of Keefe and keep him away from the ball.

And through the first 10 minutes, Keefe was held in check.

He never even touched the ball until 9:54 remained, when he pulled down an offensive rebound and scored on a layup.

By then, though, UCLA had assumed the lead, outscoring the Cardinal, 17-6, after Ammann opened the half by making another three-pointer.

The Bruins increased their advantage to 62-56, but Stanford then scored nine consecutive points to regain the lead, 65-62, with 7:30 left.

Bruin Notes

UCLA will play California Sunday at Berkeley, where it has lost twice in the last four seasons. The Bruins’ losses in the 1985-86 and 1987-88 seasons are their only two against the Golden Bears in 61 games since 1961, when they lost a one-point loss at Berkeley. . . . The loss denied Coach Jim Harrick his 200th career victory. He was 167-97 in nine seasons at Pepperdine and is 32-13 in 1 1/2 seasons at UCLA, including a 10-9 record on the road.

After saying last week that he had given freshman Tracy Murray a green light to shoot whenever and wherever, Harrick said this week: “I want him to shoot open shots. And I want him to shoot when he’s warmed up, after he’s run up and down the court a few times.” . . . Harrick on Kevin Walker, who started 42 consecutive games for UCLA before being replaced in the starting lineup last week by Keith Owens: “He’ll be called upon, and when he is, he’d better be ready.” Walker played nine minutes against Stanford, all in the first half, and picked up three fouls trying to guard Adam Keefe.