MacLean Passes Alcindor, UCLA Passes Oregon State : College basketball: Senior scores 22 points, 16 in second half, for school scoring mark. Bruins rally, 72-62, to end losing streak at Corvallis.

Walking off the court Thursday night after UCLA’s 72-62 victory over Oregon State at Gill Coliseum, Bruin forward Don MacLean turned to Coach Jim Harrick and said, “I’m glad it’s over.”

MacLean’s reference was to his pursuit of Lew Alcindor’s all-time UCLA scoring record, which ended when MacLean made a free throw with 6:11 to play, but it could have been to the Bruins’ losing streak at Corvallis.

UCLA has made great strides in its 3 1/2 seasons with Harrick and MacLean, but the Bruins had not won at Gill Coliseum since 1987.

“Heck yes, we were conscious of it,” senior guard Gerald Madkins said. “I’ve never won here. It’s good to finally win one. You never know how it feels to win (in) some places.”

And?

“It feels the same,” Madkins said, laughing.

But he was happier for the knowing.

The third-ranked Bruins improved to 18-1 overall and 9-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference, keeping pace with USC in the conference race.

“We’re marching it on down,” Madkins said. “We’re doing things we haven’t been able to do since we’ve been at UCLA. This is the last stop in the Pac-10 where we hadn’t won.”

It didn’t compare with the Bruins’ victory over Arizona last month at Tucson, which ended the Wildcats’ 71-game home winning streak, but they had to overcome an 11-point first-half deficit in front of 9,374.

MacLean led the way, scoring 16 of his 22 points and taking 12 of his season-high 15 rebounds in the second half.

He has scored 2,329 points at UCLA, four more than Alcindor.

“He’s been a stellar player for us for four years,” Harrick said. “I’m going to really miss him. It couldn’t happen to a better guy. He’s very deserving, hard-working. He’s a horse.”

On a night when Tracy Murray made only three of 15 shots and scored a season-low nine points, failing to reach double figures for the first time in 56 games, MacLean led a balanced attack for the Bruins, who got 15 points from Shon Tarver and 10 each from Mitchell Butler and Darrick Martin.

Scott Haskin led Oregon State (11-12, 3-7) with 24 points.

The Bruins had good reason to be concerned about this game.

They hadn’t experienced much success at Gill Coliseum in recent seasons, losing here 10 times in 12 games since 1979.

And they trailed Oregon State for more than 30 minutes last month at Pauley Pavilion and were taken into overtime before winning, 87-81, after three Beavers fouled out. Whistled for 10 fewer fouls than Oregon State, UCLA outscored the Beavers by 14 points at the foul line in that game.

“Obviously, we really got handled by Oregon State last time,” Harrick said before the game. “They played a terrific game, (and) we just didn’t play a very good game. We had a lot of turnovers. We missed layups and passed the ball off guys’ heads, threw the ball out of bounds.”

The start of this game looked like a replay of last month’s.

The Bruins’ first three possessions ended with a missed baseline jumper by MacLean, a turnover and a missed three-point shot by Murray. Butler, assigned to Haskin, picked up two fouls in the first 84 seconds.

UCLA missed two more shots, made a turnover and trailed, 8-0.

Oregon State increased its lead to 23-12 on a pair of free throws by Haskin with 9:57 left in the half and still led, 34-27, when Haskin picked up his second foul with 3:54 left and was removed from the game.

Haskin, who made four of five shots and scored 14 points in the first half, didn’t return until the second half and UCLA outscored the Beavers, 9-4, in the next four minutes, cutting its deficit to 38-36 at halftime.

The Bruins took the lead for good, 54-52, on a three-point shot by Butler, whose shot from the left wing started a 13-2 run.

Bruin Notes

Don MacLean has averaged 20.6 points in 113 games at UCLA. Lew Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, averaged 26.4 in 88 games. . . . MacLean, third on the all-time Pac-10 scoring list behind Stanford’s Todd Lichti and Arizona’s Sean Elliott, needs 227 points to pass Elliott. If MacLean maintains his season average of 21.2 points, he’ll break Elliott’s record in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

MacLean had never scored less than 25 points against Oregon State. In eight games against the Beavers, he averaged 27.1 points while making 60.6% of his shots. . . . MacLean has made 39 of his last 40 free throws.

Oregon State made 33.3% of its shots and scored only 24 points after halftime, the lowest-scoring half by a UCLA opponent this season. . . . Oregon State is 9-2 when leading at halftime, both losses to UCLA.