MacLean Watches Bruin Win : UCLA: Leading scorer is out with eye injury, but Madkins scores 21 in 89-86 victory over Stanford.

A day that dawned bleakly ended brilliantly for UCLA, which overcame the absence of Don MacLean and a hip injury that hampered Tracy Murray to beat Stanford, 89-86, Saturday at Maples Pavilion.

Faced with the prospect that another loss would saddle them with their worst record in conference play in 43 years, the Bruins gathered in the morning to learn of these developments:

--MacLean, their leading scorer and rebounder, probably would not play because of an injury to his right eye, suffered when an errant elbow clipped him late in Thursday night’s 82-79 loss to California.

--Murray, their No. 2 scorer and rebounder, was being examined by Dr. Don Bunce, a former Stanford quarterback whose tests revealed that Murray’s discomfort was caused by inflammation of a joint in his left hip.

“We had to reach way down,” Coach Jim Harrick said.

They came up with an improbable victory over the Cardinal, which had won five games in a row over UCLA in a two-year span.

With MacLean on the bench in street clothes and Murray limited to five-of-15 shooting, the Bruins relied heavily on guards Darrick Martin, Gerald Madkins and Shon Tarver, who combined for 56 points.

Madkins scored a career-high 21 points, making three of four three-point shots, including a fallaway from the left wing that broke a 79-79 tie and put the Bruins ahead to stay with 2 minutes 35 seconds left.

Martin scored 20 points, including 14 in the second half, when the junior point guard made all but one of his six shots.

Tarver scored 12 of his 15 points during a spectacular 2 1/2-minute span near the end of the first half, when UCLA outscored the Cardinal, 13-0, on three three-point shots by Tarver, who was fouled and added a free throw after the last, and another by Madkins to open a 37-26 lead.

“We just took it upon ourselves in the hotel to say, ‘Even if (MacLean) doesn’t play, we have enough talent to win without key people,’ ” Madkins said. “We need him, but we have enough talent to go around.

“People say we’re not as good without him, or without Tracy, but that’s just not true. Everybody else has a role when we have those guys in the game, but today we said, ‘No more role players. Let’s step up and play.’ ”

UCLA, which lost six of nine Pacific 10 Conference games after a 2-0 start, improved to 18-7 overall and 6-6 in the Pac-10. A loss would have dropped the Bruins two games below .500 this late in a conference season for the first time since 1948, when they were 3-9 in their last season before the arrival of John Wooden.

Stanford is 14-10 and 7-7.

Cardinal Coach Mike Montgomery called it “a missed opportunity for us.”

Stanford also was without a starter, forward Andrew Vlahov, who tormented MacLean last month in an 89-82 Cardinal victory at Pauley Pavilion, harassing the Bruin forward into an eight-of-20 shooting night.

Vlahov had bone spurs removed from his right ankle Jan. 30.

Stanford is 4-3 without him, but the Cardinal still was expected to give UCLA a hard time, especially with MacLean out.

The Cardinal overcame an eight-point second-half deficit, took the lead three times midway through the half, fell behind by five again and then rallied to tie, 79-79, on a layup by Adam Keefe with 3:45 left.

But UCLA, which has lost five conference games either in overtime or in the last minute, made the big plays down the stretch this time, starting with Madkins’ three-point shot from the left wing.

“We were running a set play for someone else,” Madkins said. “It broke down and we just got into our basic continuity. I got it on the wing and threw it into Keith (Owens). (John) Patrick went down to double on Keith and I got ready to get the ball back. When I did, I just shot it.”

It swished through the net and Stanford never recovered.

Patrick, who scored all of his game-high 22 points in the second half, made an off-balance three-point shot with five seconds left to pull Stanford to within 87-86, but when the Cardinal called time immediately afterward, a technical foul was called because it had no timeouts left.

Murray missed two free throws, but UCLA retained possession and Madkins was fouled. His two free throws provided the final margin.

“We were kind of wondering when we were going to win a close game,” Martin said. “This could be a steppingstone for us.”

Bruin Notes

Despite his injury, suffered Thursday night when he collided with teammate Keith Owens, Tracy Murray scored 18 points. . . . Don MacLean said of his right eye, which swelled considerably since Thursday night: “It’s pretty tender. If I got hit, it could cause some serious damage, which I don’t need.”. . . MacLean said that he will play Thursday night against Oregon at Pauley Pavilion.

Keith Owens started in place of MacLean, failed to score in 29 minutes but held Adam Keefe in check. Keefe had 21 points and seven rebounds. In last month’s game against the Bruins, the Stanford center had 30 points and nine rebounds.