Cal Showing No Respect for the Pauley Mystique : College basketball: Practice incident motivates the Bears, who win their third in a row in UCLA’s arena, 100-93.

Depending on who was talking, it was either a minor interruption, an ugly disruption or an entirely forgettable moment of everyday college basketball.

As slights go, UCLA’s arrival at the tail end of a California practice at Pauley Pavilion on Friday seems, well, slight .

But, summoning every bit of inspiration from the incident it could, a testy and talented Golden Bear team bustled past, then beat down the Bruins before 12,203 at Pauley on Saturday, 100-93.

Just when UCLA seemed to be building momentum after sweeping the Arizona schools on the road, the Bruins’ indignity Saturday ran this deep: No conference opponent had previously won three consecutively at Pauley. Notre Dame won four in a row in the late ‘70s.

“We hate losing to Cal, I think, more than any team in the Pac-10,” said freshman guardToby Bailey, who continued his recent shooting slump with a one-for-four outing, “just because of the personal little rivalries between the teams and what they did last year.”

In a matchup whose intensity seems to rise geometrically with each new recruiting battle and perceived insult, Cal, 11-5 and 3-4 in the conference, has won three in a row over UCLA (12-2, 6-2), including a sweep last year.

Now this.

“We owe a lot to UCLA,” Cal Coach Todd Bozeman volunteered after the game. “Yesterday, at our practice, their guys walked right through our practice. It was ridiculous to me. UCLA came in here and showed us no respect. Our team was furious.”

Said Cal reserve guard Randy Duck: “What goes around, comes around. Disrespect is going to come around always.”

Though freshman forward Tremaine Fowlkes’ 12-point burst in the middle of the second half and UCLA’s paltry bench output of three points probably were more integral to Cal’s victory, afterward, Bozeman and his players spoke almost solely about what happened Friday.

“Everybody gets fired up for different reasons,” said Bruin senior forward Ed O’Bannon, who led UCLA with 23 points. “Who cares? They just flat outplayed us today. Who fired up who doesn’t matter.

“I mean, we were just getting ready for practice. It’s our gym.”

Bozeman detailed the incident like this: With Cal allotted from 1 p.m to 3 p.m. on the Pauley floor, UCLA Coach Jim Harrick walked across the arena at about 2:30, when Bozeman and his staff were working on strategy. About 10 minutes later, assistant coach Steve Lavin walked across the floor to the UCLA locker room.

Then, at about 2:50 p.m., the whole Bruin team wandered out of the locker room before its practice and, according to Bozeman and several Bear players, heckled and laughed while Cal was shooting free throws.

Bozeman said he chose not to say anything to Harrick or any other Bruin at the time, hoping to find retribution come game time.

“I already had one incident in L.A.,” Bozeman said, alluding to last Sunday’s altercation with a security guard during Cal’s tight victory at Cal State Northridge. “I didn’t want to get into another.”

The Bruins, for their part, said they in no way were trying to intimidate Cal on Friday, denied heckling Cal, and shrugged off the Bears’ comments as a team searching for motivation.

“I’ve done this every day for four years, at 2:50 or quarter to three, and this is the first time it’s ever been a big issue,” said Lavin, who says players and coaches of other teams meander through the building all the time when UCLA is practicing on the road. “In no way was it a lack of respect.

“I think Tremaine Fowlkes and Jelani Gardner were more of a factor than me walking through a practice.”

Said Gardner, like Fowlkes, a freshman from L.A.: “They probably didn’t think it was a big deal. But to us, it was a big deal. It made us emotional for the game.”

Oh, there was a game too?

Though the Bruins made several runs to keep the game fairly competitive, and even led by three, 61-58, early in the second half, Cal never flinched.

The turning point came with 9:20 left, UCLA trailing by four, when Harrick decided to send Ed O’Bannon back in the game with four fouls to defend Fowlkes.

Fowlkes, who had a game-high 24 points on eight-for-nine shooting, immediately had a dunk, a three-pointer and then a jump hook to put Cal up, 77-66, and UCLA, struggling against Cal’s second-half zone defense, never made it back from that.

Which left the Bruins to ponder the next meeting with Cal, and formulate, perhaps, their own motivations.

“It’s going to be huge,” Bailey said of the Feb. 23 rematch at Harmon Gym. “For everybody.”

*

* NOT SO PERFECT

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* PACIFIC 10 CONFERENCE

No. 13 Arizona State pulls away in the final two minutes to win at No. 18 Oregon. C14

* TROJAN SLIDE CONTINUES

USC rallies from a 17-point deficit but comes up short against No. 17 Stanford, 85-82. C15