PACIFIC 10 BASKETBALL / DAN HAFNER : Arizona Turns Conference Race Into a Struggle for Second Place

Only a complete collapse can prevent Arizona from winning the Pacific 10 Conference championship for the fifth time in the last six seasons.

The Wildcats have won all seven of their conference games and have only four more road games. When they came from behind at Oregon State on Saturday and won their 11th in a row, it gave them a firm grip on first place.

With so many teams losing key players after last season and depending on freshmen and sophomores, it was expected to be a wide-open race for the title.

But the race now is for second place. Six teams have solid shots at second, which essentially assures an NCAA tournament berth. A seventh, Washington, is not out of it. Only Stanford and Oregon are out of the race.

Six teams have lost three times and Washington has lost four.

There are two major surprises, Washington State and Arizona State. Both were expected to finish near the bottom.

The Cougars had lost their two best offensive threats, Terrence Lewis and Neil Derrick, who led them to 22 victories last season, through graduation.

The Sun Devils had lost two key players, too, Mario Bennett, because of an injury, and Jamal Faulkner, because of trouble with the law.

The Sun Devils and Cougars are 4-3, trailing Oregon State (5-3), which has lost three in a row since point guard Brent Barry suffered a leg injury.

California, UCLA and USC are also in the logjam at 4-3. With more than half the league season remaining, it’s still anybody’s race--for second.

Until Barry went out, the Beavers appeared to be no worse than second-best in the conference. But Jim Anderson hasn’t found a replacement for his playmaker. Barry has a deep bruise on his right calf that is slow to heal. He might not be back for the Oregon game Saturday.

The Cougars, with the best three-point shooting team in the conference, might have been given the lift they needed Saturday at Cal.

Jason Kidd and his team took a 20-point lead during the first half. A pressing defense and the quick hands of Kidd led to numerous easy baskets.

But for some reason, the Bears backed off during the second half, and the Cougars started making three-point baskets.

The Cougars caught the Bears midway through the second half and won going away. Eddie Hill, the former star at Cleveland High of Reseda, scored 17 of his 28 points during the second half. Hill, Bennie Seltzer and Tony Harris, the guards, made 11 of the 12 Cougar three-pointers. For the season the Cougars are shooting 42% from long range.

“After losing so much of our offense, we thought this was going to be a rebuilding year,” Coach Kelvin Sampson said. “We lost some tough games early and that helped us in the Cal game. Next to the Bears, we have the youngest team in the conference.”

Since losing the first three league games, Washington State has won four in a row and its next four will be at home. Thursday night, the Cougars will play USC and Saturday it’s UCLA. The next weekend, the two Arizona teams are in Pullman.

“By no means will it be easy to win all four,” Sampson said. “But if we don’t, we figure to be in trouble. Yes, we could finish second, but we could finish eighth or ninth, too.”

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The Sun Devils have some three-point shooters of their own. Marcell Capers has been among the top three in the Pac-10 all season. Stevin Smith, a junior guard from Dallas, got into the act last Saturday night at Oregon.

Smith set a conference record, making 10 of his 17 shots. The previous record of nine was held by Steve Beck of Arizona State and Anthony Pendleton of USC. Both did it in 1987.

“I used to dream about how many three-point shots I could make in a game,” Smith said. “This was a dream night.”

Coach Bill Frieder has been telling his team all along that it is not a last-place team. And he has his team believing it.

“We won’t be last,” he said. “We might finish eighth, but then we might finish second, too.”

The Sun Devils have six of their last 11 conference games at home.

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California seemed ready to take over second place after opening a 44-24 lead over Washington State, but now the Bears face the toughest schedule of all those in the battle for second.

They will have seven of their last 11 games on the road and play Arizona twice. They will have to bounce back from the Washington State game against an improving Arizona State team Thursday night at Tempe. Saturday, they will be in Tucson to play the Wildcats.

After the stunning loss to Washington State, Cal Coach Lou Campanelli complained that his young players had stopped listening.

“I could not coach them,” he said. “From halftime of the Washington game, their heads were somewhere else. There was no hunger. Young teams have to learn the hard way, just like children.”

Pacific 10 Notes

In nine games last week, the home team won only one, Cal’s victory over Washington. For the season in conference play it is 18-18. . . . Jason Kidd had 14 steals last week to increase his average to 4.2. The NCAA freshman record is 3.73 by Connecticut’s Nadav Henefold in 1990.

Tremayne Anchrum of USC and Rich Manning of Washington are tied for the lead in rebounding with 9.1 per game. . . . Arizona’s Chris Mills leads in three-point shooting at 50.9% and is the only player making more than half his shots from long range. . . . Stevin Smith of Arizona State has taken over the scoring lead with a 20.2 average, dropping Mills (19.2) to second.