Bruins Win Late, Trojans Win Ugly

Charles O’Bannon lifted them, J.R. Henderson nudged them over the top, and Jelani McCoy saved them at the last.

By two points, by one last dramatic stand, by the skin of their teeth, the 24th-ranked UCLA Bruins defeated No. 11 Arizona, 66-64 on Thursday before 14,474 at McKale Center, scoring their biggest victory in more than a year.

“I’d have to say this is our biggest win,” McCoy said. “There aren’t too many teams that come into McKale and get a victory, are there?”

No, there aren’t, which is probably why Coach Steve Lavin was jumping around on the floor in the aftermath like a schoolkid and why O’Bannon had a glazed smile plastered onto his face well after the buzzer sounded.

In a thundering climax, the Bruins absorbed the hits--self-imposed and otherwise--let O’Bannon carry them into the final moments, then held on tight for a sweep of the Wildcats, maintaining a tie for first place in the Pacific 10 with USC.

O’Bannon scored a season-high 26 points, on 10-for-14 shooting mostly of the leaning, lunging type, and generally offset UCLA’s season-high turnover count of 28.

“He’s big time right now,” Henderson said of O’Bannon. “Whenever we need a big shot, he takes it and he makes it, and it’s the kind of spark we need. Every time he makes one of those, we get fired up. Any time things got slow, he stepped up and hit one.”

It was Arizona’s first loss at home this season, after winning 10, and UCLA’s fourth victory over the Wildcats in the past five matchups.

“I felt really good, I felt like I couldn’t do any wrong,” said O’Bannon, who has put together a month’s worth of spectacular basketball in his senior season.

However, with the game tied, 60-60, O’Bannon feared he might have made a pivotal mistake--after mishandling a nice lob pass from Dollar, O’Bannon shoved Bennett Davison in frustration, drawing his fourth foul and giving Arizona the lead when Davison made both free throws.

“That was a freshman mistake,” O’Bannon said. “I was just hoping that didn’t haunt us in the end.”

It didn’t. O’Bannon’s last basket came with 59 seconds left, a runner from the right baseline, to tie the score, 64-64. Then it was time for other heroes.

First, Cameron Dollar drew a charging foul on Arizona’s Miles Simon with 45.7 seconds left.

“I was just trying to make him work,” said Dollar, who had four steals, seven assists and seven turnovers. “I was kind of surprised when they called it.”

On the next UCLA possession, after bobbling a clean entry pass, Henderson grabbed the ball and made a five-foot jump hook over Simon with 18.4 seconds to play.

Then, the UCLA defense strangled the harried Wildcats, and McCoy swatted away Arizona’s best last chance, blocking Mike Bibby’s shovel shot after the point guard found a lane to the hoop with about four seconds to go.

“I’m just so proud of our players because they’ve gone through so much,” said Lavin, coaching for the first time since UCLA gave him the head job permanently.

“I feel such a great sense of satisfaction that they’ve developed the maturity and confidence to overcome so much adversity--and there isn’t anything much harder than to win at this place.”

Arizona, hoping to leap into first place, fell to 15-6, and 7-4 in the conference. UCLA is 14-7 and 9-3.

“This is the toughest defeat I’ve experienced at McKale in my time here,” said Simon, who had 24 points.

O’Bannon scored a game-high 24 points, including eight in overtime, to lead UCLA over Arizona in their Pauley Pavilion meeting.

“I’d never played really good basketball against Arizona before this season,” O’Bannon said. “And to play two good games in my last year, that really means something to me.

“Let me tell you, that sweep feels good.”

UCLA had 16 turnovers in the first half--five each by Dollar and Toby Bailey.

Arizona scored the last four points of the half to lead, 33-32.

But the Wildcats shot only 40.4% from the field in the game (compared to 58.7% for UCLA), and made only five of 20 three-point tries. Bibby was one of 10 from the floor.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Pacific 10 Race

Conf.

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Team W L UCLA 9 3 USC 9 3 California 8 4 Arizona 7 4 Stanford 7 5 Washington 6 5 Oregon 5 7 Washington State 3 8 Arizona State 2 8 Oregon State 2 10

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Overall

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Team W L UCLA 14 7 USC 14 7 California 17 6 Arizona 15 6 Stanford 14 6 Washington 13 7 Oregon 14 7 Washington State 11 12 Arizona State 10 13 Oregon State 6 15

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OTHER GAMES

Stanford 87, Oregon State 54

California 73, Oregon 66