Latest in Bruin Highlight Club Is ‘Air’ Edney : UCLA: Point guard’s dunk puts exclamation point on 91-78 victory over depleted Washington State.

With one dribble, a power step and a leap for the sky, Tyus Edney raised his game and brought down the house.

Nobody had ever seen Edney, 5 feet 10 on tiptoes, dunk before--so who knew?

“I’ve never seen him throw it down,” said forward Charles O’Bannon, UCLA’s more regular sky-walker. “But he does a lot of things we don’t expect him to.

“There aren’t many 5-9 guys who can dunk.”

Edney’s open-court dunk sent Pauley Pavilion into an uproar and gave the Bruins a 30-point lead with 12 minutes left in Saturday’s game, the capstone to a 91-78 victory over Washington State before 10,632.

“He truly amazed me today,” said senior center George Zidek, who remembered the last time Edney tried to dunk--a miss against Oregon in both players’ freshman season. “He just made a statement.

“He’s a big fellah now. He’s not 5-10 now, he’s 6-10.”

Even though Washington State was without point guard Donminic Ellison and second-leading rebounder Tavares Mack, who were suspended before the game by Coach Kevin Eastman for unspecified disciplinary reasons, UCLA Coach Jim Harrick called this the best game his team has played this season.

After three unsettling conference games, and with their crucial Arizona trip coming up this week, all the Bruins wanted to talk about was momentum and confidence--not Washington State’s problems.

UCLA, 9-1 overall and 3-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference, was in sync and intense from the opening tip for the first time since Pac-10 action began and took full advantage of the Cougars’ weaknesses.

Washington State (6-5, 2-2) has never won in Pauley Pavilion.

“This is the way this team should have played all year,” said Edney, who had a game-high 11 assists and five steals in only 21 minutes. “Now we’ve got momentum going into Arizona, which is a real important road trip.”

After trading baskets in the early minutes, the Bruins clamped down on defense--triggered by backup guard Cameron Dollar--and led by 12 points at halftime.

UCLA made 73.3% of its shots in the first half, missing only eight of 30, with its front line of George Zidek and the O’Bannon brothers, Charles and Ed, dominating play. By the time the game ended, the three had combined to make 25 of 34 shots.

Zidek and Ed O’Bannon led the Bruins with 20 points. Zidek rebounded from a personal low point--he made only one of nine shots Thursday night against Washington--by making seven of nine, including several outside jumpers.

For Washington State, merely surviving the game--and making a late rally to keep the score respectable--without two of its top players was a statement.

“It was a major learning experience for us,” Eastman said. “You saw a team with better players beat a team with not as many good players.

“I was asked earlier today, why (suspend the two players) before this game? Well, this is the next game. That’s when it happened. For a coach not to do it for this game, he ought not to be coaching.”

The Bruins, pressing the Cougars relentlessly, started the second half on a 26-6 burst, during which UCLA forced seven turnovers.

Then, with the outcome no longer in doubt, came the moment. Charles O’Bannon stole a pass, then flicked the ball downcourt to Edney, in stride.

“I knew I wanted to dunk,” Edney said. “I drove to the middle, I jumped, and I knew I was up there, so I thought I better go ahead and dunk it.”

Said Charles O’Bannon: “It felt like I was kind of returning him a favor. He’s always hooking me up with great passes for dunks, and I’m always on the highlight films.

“This time, I’ll be on the highlight films--but passing it to him.”

Edney raced back up court after his dunk with a huge smile, then bounced into Ed O’Bannon’s arms when the Cougars called time out, pumping his fist and screaming.

He was taken out, and when the crowd roared again during the replay, Edney beamed on the bench.

“It was,” he said later, “pretty sweet.”