After Getting Close Calls, Bruins Survive Close Call : UCLA: Free throws, Stanford offensive foul make difference, 77-74.

UCLA was dragged into the cross hairs Thursday night, then Ed O’Bannon, Tyus Edney and Cameron Dollar barely dragged the Bruins back to safety.

It did not come without a bushel full of missed free throws and odd whistles, a blown 16-point lead and 20 minutes of second-half tension.

But, finally, when Stanford three-point marksman Dion Cross missed his wild bomb to try to tie the score at the buzzer, UCLA stumbled away with a 77-74 victory before 11,783 at Pauley Pavilion.

“When you’re going down the stretch, you better go down with your seniors and your starters,” said Bruin Coach Jim Harrick, who kept his two key freshmen on the bench for most of the crucial final sprint.

With freshman standouts Toby Bailey and J.R. Henderson struggling (they were a combined two for 14 from the field, though Henderson did have 10 rebounds), UCLA’s veterans came to the forefront.

Senior center George Zidek made key free throws in the last minute and outplayed Stanford freshman Tim Young, scoring 17 points to Young’s eight. Seniors O’Bannon and Edney wanted and received the ball in the pressure-point possessions.

And sophomore Dollar drew the charging call that gave UCLA the extra possession it needed to maintain a one-point lead.

“The past two games we’ve had freshmen and sophomores making big plays for us,” said O’Bannon, who led the Bruins with 23 points--14 in the second half, including seven of UCLA’s last 14 points. “Today, we had experience lead the way.”

The game began as a blowout, with No. 4 UCLA, 12-1 and 6-1 in the Pacific 10, in fast-break form, taking a 36-21 lead with 7:41 left in the half. Backup center Ike Nwankwo gave UCLA seven quality minutes in the half, producing six points, four rebounds, one assist and a block.

With Stanford point guard Brevin Knight playing only 11 minutes in the half, Stanford made only nine first-half field goals and shot only 31% from the field.

At halftime, UCLA led, 45-31.

But No. 17 Stanford (12-3, 3-3), playing a near-perfect second half, ate into UCLA’s lead bit by bit. With 9:49 left in the game, Stanford had narrowed it to 58-57, and Knight, nursing a stress reaction in his right shin, began blowing past Dollar, Edney and anybody else who tried to guard him.

“Brevin had no points, Young had no points at halftime,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “I told them that’s not Stanford basketball. That’s not the character of this team. Unfortunately, you can’t spot a team like UCLA 15 points.”

The Cardinal finally jumped ahead with 65 seconds left in the game on Cross’ fallaway jumper from deep in the left corner, his fourth three-point basket of the second half.

“I figured we were in pretty good shape at that point,” Knight said. “We’d come back from down 15 or 16, that gave us a chance to win. So all we’ve got to do is go down and play good defense, and what do you know, there was a foul called.”

With 45 seconds left, Zidek was fouled by Young--one of 54 fouls called in the game.

Zidek, who made all four of his free throws in the final minutes, put UCLA up by one. Then, with the Pauley Pavilion crowd in full scream, Cardinal guard David Harbour dipped his shoulder and crashed into Dollar. Harbour was called for a charge, and UCLA had the ball back with 32 seconds left.

“Really, that was the play that turned the game around,” Harrick said of Dollar’s defense.

Edney made two of four foul shots in two possessions, giving Cross one last chance to tie.

“Dion can shoot the three deep,” Montgomery said, “and he sometimes gets unconscious and can shoot it way deep. But it’s obviously disappointing we didn’t get a clean look.”

More on UCLA Basketball

If you want to review the Bruins’ season to date, you can read features, game stories and notes that have appeared in The Times this season on TimesLink.

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