Narrow Escape Pleases Bruins

This was not your normal Bruin breakout game.

They were shaky at times, almost caught from behind, and hardly ready to launch themselves back into the national picture.

But 23rd-ranked UCLA, battered into submission by Kansas a week ago, took a swing at organized, patient basketball Saturday night, and the result was a workmanlike, 72-61 victory over Ohio before 8,053 at Pauley Pavilion.

It was no blowout, but, considering the frustration and criticism focused on this tattered team after the Kansas collapse, it was enough for the Bruins.

“I felt like I was part of a team again,” Bruin swingman Kris Johnson said.

The Bruins made passes, didn’t put up many forced shots, and generally seemed intent on proving that the past finals week of early-morning practices with interim Coach Steve Lavin actually had an effect.

And that the Kansas demolition had taught them a thing or two about teamwork.

Said forward J.R. Henderson: “This was the kind of game that we didn’t win just on talent or skill, where we won on execution and hard play. That’s real good for us, because that’s what we’ve been working on all week.”

The crucial facts weren’t about dunks or standing ovations or three-point bombs. They were: 12 turnovers, by far UCLA’s lowest total of the season, a 37-33 rebound edge, and a much crisper, rhythmic feel to their often-chaotic offensive sets.

“We’re usually a one-pass-and-shoot team--guys are looking to go one-on-one a lot, and that’s how we get our turnovers,” said Henderson, who, along with Charles O’Bannon, had a team-high 16 points. “There’s no execution at all, guys are just standing around on offense.

“But tonight, we moved the ball, and we got good looks.”

The Bruins’ best offensive movement came in the late moments, when the scrambling Bobcats (2-3) turned a couple of UCLA lapses into a 10-1 run that pulled them to within 54-51 with 7:29 left to play.

That’s when Henderson started finding creases in the middle of the Ohio zone, and, against the early-season odds, that’s when the Bruins zipped the ball around the perimeter precisely enough to create the right creases to get it to him.

Henderson got four consecutive inside chances in the next five possessions, scored twice, and Jelani McCoy followed one of the misses with a dunk after the Bobcat defense collapsed on Henderson.

“When we’re patient and we get ball reversals and we have good spacing and set a couple good screens, we’re pretty tough to deal with because J.R. and Jelani are such strong finishers around the basket,” Lavin said.

After Henderson’s last basket gave UCLA a 62-55 lead with three minutes left, Ohio was forced to foul, and Bruin guards Cameron Dollar and Toby Bailey made seven of eight free throws to seal the victory for the Bruins (2-2).

Dollar and Bailey also combined to commit only four turnovers to key the Bruins’ first sub-20 turnover game. UCLA had 26 against Kansas.

“We’ve been concentrating on the simple pass and not making the behind-the-back and no-look passes,” Bailey said.

Though Ohio, led by 5-foot-8 shooter Geno Ford, was badly outsized by the Bruins, and really had no players to match either McCoy or Henderson inside, Lavin also pointed with pride to the rebound numbers. Kansas manhandled UCLA underneath the boards, and UCLA also was outrebounded in its victory over Northridge.

Lavin said that, after the Bruins were outrebounded, 18-17, in the first half, the emphasis was on McCoy and everybody else dominating the boards. McCoy finished with a season-high nine rebounds (six in the second half), and UCLA gave up only three offensive rebounds in the second 20 minutes.

“We want to rebound and run, but you have to rebound it first in order to run,’ Lavin said. “I reminded them we want them to run, but not before we secured possession of the ball.”

Last season, the Bruins also got off to a 1-2 start, then won 11 of their next 12 games and won the Pacific 10 Conference going away.

“I think the same thing might happen this year,” Bailey said. “We definitely can get on a winning streak if we keep passing the ball and being unselfish.”