UCLA Has Weak Kick on Bell Lap

At the end of a gamelong sprint, with caution out the window and the conference lead up for grabs, UCLA got outkicked on the bell lap Thursday night.

With 4:31 left to play, California was down six, down to its last few fouls, and looked ready to fall down for good. Then things turned upside-down.

Whoooosh, the Golden Bears went roaring past at the last, outscoring UCLA, 13-4, in the final minutes and seizing a 71-68 victory before 11,701 at Pauley Pavilion that ended the Bruins’ 18-game home Pacific 10 conference winning streak.

“You take pride in winning at home,” UCLA forward J.R. Henderson said. “That’s what we said: If we win all our home games and split on the road, we’d win the conference. It’s hard to win the conference if you continue to lose at home.”

Said forward Charles O’Bannon: “We took it for granted, we’d get our two at home . . . now somebody has come in and taken one.”

Cal, which won its sixth in a row, was also the last Pac-10 team to beat UCLA in Pauley, accomplish ing that in January 1995.

Coupled with USC’s defeat of Stanford, it also knocked the Bruins (and lifted Cal) into a four-way tie for first place in the conference, everybody tied at 7-3.

UCLA faces Stanford (the team that beat the Bruins by a record 48 points in January) on Saturday, in what several players acknowledged was a must-win if the Bruins are going to stay in the race for first.

So the 12-7 Bruins’ madcap march moves on, after suffering their third grueling defeat in four games, toward . . . what?

“We’ve had our goals change so much during the year that this one really doesn’t matter all that much,” said UCLA guard Toby Bailey, who missed a desperation three-point shot at the buzzer.

“We’re still in contention to win the Pac-10, and that’s what we have to try to do.”

Like a runner stumbling to regain the pace, UCLA had a handful of pivotal moments where it almost recovered, almost found the right footing . . . but didn’t.

There was Bailey’s near-steal of Cal’s inbounds pass with 51 seconds left (called a foul), and UCLA trailing by one; there was Henderson’s miss on the front end of a one-and-one free-throw opportunity, trailing, 69-66, with 37 seconds left; there was Bear guard Randy Duck’s seven consecutive points in crunch time; there was Ed Gray’s spinning jumper (his 28th and 29th points of the game) to give Cal the lead for good with 1:14 left.

“We just felt them taking control,” said UCLA forward Charles O’Bannon, who led the Bruins with 18 points. “We were zoning, and we couldn’t guard. There wasn’t much we could do.

“They were more hungry. They wanted the ball--they wanted to win--more than we did.”

The Bruins let the Bears (16-5) collect 22 offensive rebounds, as big men Alfred Grigsby, Michael Stewart and Tony Gonzalez combined for 26 rebounds overall, and 14 offensive rebounds between them.

Meanwhile, with Gray and guard Prentice McGruder both saddled with four fouls for much the late-going, UCLA scored only two baskets in the last 6:16 of the game, with Cal in a zone, strangling the inside and daring the Bruins to shoot from long range.

“We packed the zone in real tight,” said Duck, who finished with 17 points. “We were telling them you have to shoot outside to win, and make it.”

Said Cal Coach Ben Braun: “Prentice and Ed had that look in their eyes, which you recognize as a coach.”

This game began at the same pace it ended: with the two teams running to a 36-36 tie in a strange, manic first half full of dizzy passes, awkward shots and collision-course defense.

O’Bannon led UCLA with 10 first-half points, and Henderson got nine.

Gray, who struggled in UCLA’s victory at the Cow Palace earlier this season, scorched the Bruin man-to-man defense for 17 first-half points, including successive, in-your-face three-point baskets in the last minutes of the period that temporarily gave Cal a six-point lead.

But this game was too frenetic for any early consistency. The teams combined to commit 21 turnovers in the first half, with Gray, McGruder and O’Bannon all making three apiece.

“I wanted to come out aggressive,” Braun said. “This is obviously a very big win for our program. Our players knew this game was for first place.”