Bruin Status Is Measured in Billikens

A season ago, two seasons ago, this would have been a blip on the calendar, a so-what schedule-filler. The Billikens? An easy victory and go home for Christmas.

Monday night, with 17,911 thundering at Kiel Center, UCLA sweated it out and struggled for survival.

Given yet another chance to collapse under pressure, the Bruins stopped their plunge by making late free throws, playing a version of coherent offense, scrambling into a tight zone defense and pulling out a 64-57 nerve-tester against St. Louis.

“Everybody’s going to say we should’ve won this game, why are they so happy?” said Toby Bailey, who played his second consecutive strong game, scoring 14 points and grabbing six rebounds in his first start of the season at point guard. “But, we have to start somewhere.

“I think the way we were going kind of humbled us. We know we’ve got great players, but we’re not really a good team right now. We have the potential to be a great team, but we’re not good now.”

Realistically, even coming against a middling team, and although there are still major problems to address, it was probably UCLA’s biggest nonconference victory since the national title season.

Afterward, this newly chastened Bruin team unabashedly cherished the victory over the 5-5 Billikens.

Monday, two days after wilting against Illinois in one of the most disappointing regular-season losses in recent memory, UCLA (4-3) was just good enough and just intense enough to knock off a Billiken team that makes up for its lack of height with a lack of shooting touch.

Interim Coach Steve Lavin juggled his starting lineup--moving Kris Johnson in and senior point guard Cameron Dollar out--to try to pump some life into a stagnant half-court offense.

Johnson responded by scoring a season-high 20 points, and Dollar, who struggled through a zero-point, one-assist outing against Illinois, played solidly off the bench, making all four of his free throws in the second half, including two to secure the victory with 25.9 seconds left.

Lavin also dropped his beloved man-to-man defense in favor of a long and tall matchup zone, which forced the Billikens into wild bombs (they were six for 29 from three-point distance).

“The basketball gods will hopefully forgive me,” Lavin said. “[But] I’m not going to get caught up in my man-to-man principles if we keep losing games.”

The Bruin players showed markedly more passion Monday--which they said was a result of Lavin’s anger after the Illini game and a players-only meeting called that night.

“We basically decided we weren’t going to let this season go to waste, that we’ve got to start playing together,” Johnson said.

“No question we’ve been humbled. I mean, how many games are we going to lose? Man, can we beat anybody? That’s what was going through our minds, I think. People always say we’re the six most talented players, but, dang, what are we lacking?”

On Monday, the Bruins moved out to a six-point halftime lead after a see-saw first half, then slowly built an 11-point lead, 47-36, with 11:44 left to play.

But St. Louis forward Jeff Harris, who scored 17 points, 15 in the second half, brought the Billikens back into it with huge inside play, and, with the lead shrinking to one, 54-53, at 5:28, Lavin said the Bruins faced a moment of truth.

“Instead of folding like an accordion, we withstood the run,” Lavin said.

From that point, UCLA scored 10 points, all on free throws, without a miss. After making only 10 of 21 free throws against Illinois, UCLA made 20 of 26 on Monday.

In the final four minutes, J.R. Henderson made four consecutive free throws, ending a horrid spell that had sent his free-throw percentage below 60%. But none more important than the two Dollar made with the score 60-57.

“I knew he was thinking about the Princeton game,” Lavin said, referring to Dollar’s misses late in UCLA’s first-round NCAA loss last season.

“But he was into the game. He didn’t start, but he kept his head up and he just competed. And that’s just an incredible example for the younger players. Cameron walks up and knocks down the free throws.

“That was bigger than anything that happened on the floor tonight.”

Dollar, who spent a month-long stint as a reserve last season, said he wasn’t bothered by the lineup change.

“That question has come up all my career,” Dollar said. “That will never change. But I don’t care whether I start or not, I’m a team guy. I don’t even really think I should have my name on the back of my jersey, it should just be UCLA.”