NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME / UCLA 89, ARKANSAS 78 : Two Top Hogs Penned Up : Bruins Shut Down Williamson and Thurman on Three Key Plays Late in Second Half, and Arkansas’ Rally Quickly Fizzles Out

Three plays within a two-minute span late in the second half typified the game Corliss Williamson and his Arkansas teammates had in the NCAA final Monday night at the Kingdome.

With UCLA’s lead cut to 67-63 and nearly seven minutes remaining in the game, the Razorbacks appeared in position to make one of their late rallies. Williamson had the ball with a chance to cut the Bruins’ lead to within a basket.

“Yeah, I thought we were about to go on one of our runs and win the game,” Arkansas guard Scotty Thurman said. “But it wasn’t meant to be for us tonight.”

Williamson, the outstanding player in last year’s Final Four, was on the right baseline with George Zidek guarding him closely when he started his favorite reverse spin to the left, looking for an easy layup.

Instead, Williamson, who had the worst NCAA tournament game of his career with 12 points and four rebounds in 33 minutes, found Zidek lurching in front of the rim, forcing him to shoot an airball a foot over the basket into the hands of UCLA’s Ed O’Bannon.

Seconds later, Thurman, who made the winning basket in last year’s championship game but scored only five points in this year’s final, had his chance to keep Arkansas’ spurt alive with a wide-open shot, only to see the ball bounce in and out for his sixth three-point miss in seven attempts.

Arkansas’ frustration then peaked when Williamson missed an open-court drive against Ed O’Bannon that could have cut the Bruin lead to two points.

The next thing Arkansas knew, UCLA had withstood the Razorbacks’ final run and had stretched its lead back to 10 points with 3:54 remaining.

“We thought that we would be able to make our run because they would tire,” Thurman said. “They did wear down, but our problem was that we wore down also.”

The one player Arkansas did not expect to wear down was Williamson, who has made a career of dominating second halves with his 6-foot-7, 245-pound body.

Not so against UCLA.

With Zidek, a 7-foot, 250-pound senior, pushing him on both ends of the court, Williamson got caught up in playing a physical game inside instead of using his quickness and shooting touch to advantage.

“My plan was to push him outside, and when he catches the ball, have a gap so he doesn’t go by me,” said Zidek, who outplayed Williamson with 14 points and six rebounds in 29 minutes. “I tried to move my feet, and every shot he would shoot would have to be a shot over me, so he would never score around me.”

The plan worked to perfection with the help of the O’Bannon brothers, Ed and Charles, who either provided double and triple teams against Williamson or intimidated him with their shot-blocking ability. Williamson made only three of 16 shots.

“(Zidek) was banging and bumping me, which made me try to resort to a more physical game,” said Williamson, who had entered the game shooting 63% in NCAA tournament games. “I kept trying to go into him, and when I did, they had great help coming from the weakside with the O’Bannons, which made me force up bad shots.”

Thurman’s problems were less complex. He could not find his shooting touch when the Razorbacks needed him the most. Entering the Final Four, Thurman had made 43% of his three-point shots in 13 NCAA tournament games, but made only one against the Bruins.

“I had good looks the whole game, but my shot just wasn’t falling for me,” he said. “It wasn’t anything that they were doing. I just couldn’t get going and find my rhythm. If I had made that shot when we were down by four, I think that I would have been in the groove then.”

Williamson and Thurman were not alone with their shooting woes, especially in the second half, when the Razorbacks shot 35.1% from the field.

Clint McDaniel, who made three of four three-point shots and had 16 points in the first half, played 17 minutes in the second half but did not score while missing three shots.

“It was like we were in mud all night,” Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said. “We weren’t active like we usually are. In fact, we looked a little tired like we did in our first game of the season (a blowout loss at Massachusetts). We didn’t have any tenacity. Tonight, UCLA was simply the best basketball team.”

’ My plan was to push him outside, and when he catches the ball, have a gap so he doesn’t go by me. I tried to move my feet, and every shot he would shoot would have to be a shot over me, so he would never score around me.”