Victory Today Is a Key for UCLA : Bruins: Oregon State destiny in hands of point guard Payton. First half of Pac-10 season ends with this afternoon’s game.

As if hoping to plant the thought into the subconscious of Oregon State’s players, UCLA basketball Coach Jim Harrick has said repeatedly this week that it’s awfully difficult to go unbeaten through a conference season.

Harrick and the Bruins hope to provide a more tangible reminder today at Pauley Pavilion, where a victory over the Beavers would move UCLA into a tie with them for first place at the midpoint of the Pacific 10 Conference race.

Oregon State is 15-2 overall, 8-0 in the Pac-10, and has won its last 10 games, most recently a 92-82 decision over USC Thursday night.

UCLA is 13-3 and 7-1 after a 79-62 victory over Oregon.

Were it not for UCLA’s 87-79 loss at Stanford last week, this would be a battle of conference unbeatens.

As it is, it’s all but a must-win situation for the Bruins. In the second half of the conference race, UCLA will face Oregon State and Arizona, which is 6-3 in Pac-10 play, on the road.

“Everybody’s got to win at home,” Gary Payton, Oregon State’s All-American guard, said Friday at UCLA. “That’s where you die in conference--if you lose at home. If they don’t win here, it will be a big challenge for them in the second half.

“They’ll be scrapping and fighting to catch us, because I don’t think we’re going to lose many games after this.”

Containing Payton, a 6-foot-4 senior from Oakland, is the key to beating Oregon State, which hasn’t lost since Dec. 19, when it was upset by Loyola Marymount at Corvallis, Ore., 117-113.

Payton is averaging 26.4 points, 9.1 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists a game.

“He’s everything you look for in a point guard,” said Marty Blake, director of scouting for the NBA.

And more, said USC Coach George Raveling, who has described Payton as the most valuable player in college basketball.

Everything the Beavers do revolves around Payton.

Raveling told an Oregon reporter this week, “If Gary Payton were in a theater and a fire broke out he’d be the first one to stand up and say, ‘OK, let me have your attention. We’ve got two exits back here, one over there and another over there.’

“Then he’d point to different groups and say, ‘You guys go back here, you go there and you go there. And let’s go about this calmly.’ That’s the way he plays on the court.”

Except, of course, Payton usually lights the fire.

“If I play OK, then I think we’re going to play OK,” Payton said. “But if I don’t play well, then I think everybody won’t play well. I’m the leader.”

It is Payton’s belief that the Beavers will play well. In his mind, they haven’t much to lose.

“If we lose, we’re still in first place,” he said.