Bruins Let One Get Away in Two Overtimes, 97-96

Before its third home conference game of the season Thursday night, Oregon State hung up the 1990 Pacific 10 championship banner.

Such is the importance attached to UCLA’s annual visit to Gill Coliseum.

It was truly a banner night for the surprising Beavers, who showed they won’t give up their crown easily by defeating the Bruins, 97-96, in double overtime.

Guard Charles McKinney hit a 12-foot jump shot with seven seconds left for the winning points.

UCLA lost its third game in the past four after winning after 13 of its first 14 and fell to 3-3 in conference play.

Oregon State remained tied for first place with Arizona in the Pac-10 at 5-1. The Beavers are 11-5 overall.

All things considered, Corvallis isn’t the place UCLA Coach Jim Harrick would like to be.

He is 0-3 with the Bruins at Gill Coliseum, the same building where his 1983 Pepperdine team suffered a come-from-ahead defeat to eventual national champion North Carolina State in the NCAA tournament.

UCLA is scoring points at a higher rate than the school record-holders of 1972, but is having trouble at the other end.

McKinney was wide open for his winning jump shot.

And so was Teo Alibegovic at the most inopportune time for the Bruins.

The 6-9 center from Yugoslavia somehow broke away from the pack and took a long pass from Mario Jackson underneath the basket for the layup that tied it, 84-84, at the buzzer and sent the game into the first five-minute overtime.

Alibegovic would foul out with 45 seconds left in the second overtime, but not until he had scored a career high 34 points.

UCLA had been in a great spot to break the Beavers’ 16-game winning streak at Gill Coliseum when Darrick Martin sank a free throw after missing the first attempt to make it 84-82 with five seconds remaining in regulation.

But then came Alibegovic’s big basket and a 6-6 first overtime.

Don MacLean and Tracy Murray again showed why UCLA probably will finish with two 20-point scorers in the same season for the first time.

Murray had 28 and MacLean 26.

And it was Murray who gave the Bruins their last lead of the night when he converted a steal by Mitchell Butler to make it 96-95 with 39 seconds remaining.

“Everybody got their money’s worth tonight,” Harrick said. “Both teams played aggressive. There were loose balls, jump balls, balls being thrown away.”

This was one, however, that Harrick wanted badly.

“We’ve got to step up now and show whether we’re able to do it,” he had said about the trip to the Pacific Northwest, which continues Saturday against Oregon in Eugene.

“You better come to play every night. We didn’t one night (against Stanford) and lost.”

There was nothing wrong with the Bruins’ effort this time.

But Oregon State is never easy at home, even when it’s playing a double-overtime game for the first time in history of the school.