Henderson Has His Day in the Sun : UCLA: Freshman scores 28 points, 21 in the second half, to lift Bruins past Washington State, 98-83.

In a hothouse rattling with the kind of noise not normally conducive to growth spurts, J.R. Henderson found room to bloom.

Twenty-eight minutes, 28 points. Bloom and boom.

Washington State pushed and battled and rallied to keep its 13-game home winning streak alive Saturday, but never had a complete answer for the 6-foot-9 freshman, UCLA’s most dangerous player on the court for the second consecutive game.

Working mainly from a spot on the low post, Henderson scored a career-high 28 points on 10-of-12 shooting to lead UCLA to a 98-83 victory before 11,463, the biggest Friel Court crowd in 12 years.

“I knew I could do more than I was showing early in the season,” said Henderson, who acknowledges he feels more comfortable when he is switched away from his starting guard spot to the low post.

“Early on, I felt like I was just going through the motions out there. Playing inside and out just opens up a lot of things for my game. I can do so much more inside.

“But this is how I play. And there’s no turning back. I’m not going to slow down at all.”

Senior point guard Tyus Edney, meanwhile, bounced back from one of his worst performances with an 18-point, 11-assist, four-steal outing, and UCLA, 16-2 overall and 9-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference, got important mileage out of its rarely used 2-3 zone half-court defense.

It was the Cougars’ first home loss in 11 games this season. The victory keeps UCLA atop the conference standings and gives the Bruins a lift as they head into a pivotal 11-day, five-game stretch beginning Thursday against Arizona State. Washington State fell to 11-8, 6-5.

And, coupled with his impressive 14-point first half against Washington Thursday, Henderson’s performance, which had been noteworthy this season but not quite sensational, seemed to signal the advent of a prime-time player.

“We all know J.R. can flat-out play,” said senior forward Ed O’Bannon, who was given the task of fronting Cougar forward Mark Hendrickson (11 points). “He could go out there and get 40 and it wouldn’t surprise any of us.”

Henderson got his chance to play in the post in the second half, when 7-foot center George Zidek picked up his second, third and fourth fouls all in the first 1 minute 13 seconds of play.

When fellow freshman Toby Bailey returned to the game with 13:49 remaining, the Bruins went into full-court warp speed, turning a 60-56 deficit into an 81-71 lead, with Henderson’s inside game and Bailey’s fast-break dunks combining for 16 of the team’s 21 points during that stretch.

Henderson scored 21 second-half points, none coming from outside 10 feet and many coming at the receiving end of Edney’s slashing drive-and-dish moves.

“Tyus Edney kind of dominated the game with his shooting and defense and steals and ballhandling,” UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said. “We welcome him back to our team. He had kind of a three-game hiatus there--he missed one (the USC game with flu) and the other two, he was kind of like a phantom out there.”

Edney hounded Washington State’s point guard, Donminic Ellison, into the kind of game Edney had Thursday against Washington--Ellison was one for 10 from the field (0 for 7 on three-point shots), with four turnovers.

Bailey, for his part, scored 15 points, 13 in the second half, on seven-of-10 shooting from the field.

“Toby, since he’s played for us, when he’s helped us is always when we’ve really needed him,” Harrick said. “When you’re on the ropes, boom, there’s Bailey for you.”

For Washington State, the game was a chance to solidify a spot in the conference’s upper division.

“We didn’t do the little things,” said Coach Kevin Eastman, whose team was led by Shamon Antrum’s career-high 29 points, most coming on three-point baskets over the UCLA zone. “If you do that against UCLA, it is just a matter of time before they beat you.”

Next up for the sixth-ranked Bruins is a the section of the schedule Harrick has been eyeing all year--playing host to the Arizona schools, traveling to Stanford and California in a rare Tuesday-Thursday series, then playing host to Duke next Sunday.

“(Beating the Cougars) takes the pressure of us going into the next four (conference) games,” Henderson said. “If we had lost this one, it would have been like we had to win all of those games, just had to.

“Now, we can go in and play our game, be relaxed, and see what happens.”