The Ball Is in Trojans' Court Now

By TIM KAWAKAMI and GEORGE DOHRMANN

Feb. 15, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

TUCSON —

Still flush with the merry mood of an electrifying upset victory, the UCLA Bruins had a crisp message for USC:

Match this.

“I don’t think USC’s going to beat Arizona here,” J.R. Henderson said late Thursday night, with the hot emotions of UCLA’s 66-64 victory over Arizona at McKale Center still coursing through the locker room.

Pacific 10 pennant race fever, anybody?

Friday morning, Henderson was calmer--but just as clear: If USC stays at the top of the Pac-10 standings today by duplicating the Bruins’ win at McKale over Arizona, the Bruins will be as shocked as anybody.

USC and UCLA are currently tied for first, at 9-3, one game ahead of second-place California and 1 1/2 games ahead of Arizona. Today, the Bruins play 2-9 Arizona State, which lost to USC on Thursday, in Tempe.

A Trojan victory would complete a 4-0 sweep of the 11th-ranked Wildcats by the Los Angeles schools this season and set up a gigantic USC-UCLA first-place clash Wednesday at Pauley Pavilion.

The last time Arizona lost successive games at home was during the 1983-84 season, Lute Olson’s first in Tucson, when the Wildcats were swept by Washington and Washington State. In the Olson era, Arizona has never gone 0-4 against the L.A. teams.

“I don’t think Arizona will drop another one there; they’re too good,” Henderson said, pointing to the Wildcats’ 141-10 record at McKale since the 1987-88 season and their 10-0 home-court record this season before UCLA ruined the perfection.

“I definitely think Arizona will win. I don’t think Lute will let them drop another one. I think [the Trojans] should’ve been the 8 1/2-point underdogs--and not us.”

Said Olson: “After a disappointing loss like this, we either come out with our heads hanging, or we come out charging.”

USC has not won at McKale since the 1984-85 season.

For their part, the Trojans, who were less than scintillating against Arizona State on Thursday but beat Arizona on Jan. 16 at the Sports Arena, say they are not going to get obsessed with the Bruins.

“We can’t worry about [what UCLA] does,” USC center David Crouse said. “We’ve just got to do our own thing, and at the end of the season we will look around and see where we are. [What UCLA does] doesn’t mean a whole lot to us.”

But forward Jaha Wilson added: “I can’t stand UCLA.”

With guard Stais Boseman dominating the Wildcat perimeter players on offense and defense, beating Arizona was the start of the Trojans’ six-victories-in-seven-games sprint to first.

Trojan Coach Henry Bibby’s estranged son, freshman Arizona point guard Mike Bibby, struggled in his first game against his father’s team, and also couldn’t find the basket (one-for-10 shooting) against UCLA on Thursday.

“We can’t rely too much on Stais this time,” USC’s Bibby said. “We have to get some other people involved.”

Said forward Gary Williams: “We came here hoping to get a sweep. If we beat Arizona, then we can start thinking about first place.”

Meanwhile, UCLA Coach Steve Lavin said Friday that he simply hopes his team stays focused on the task at hand--beating Arizona State as a prelude to the Trojan game.

On Jan. 23, the Bruins dominated on the post and beat USC at the Sports Arena, 96-87.

But, Lavin said: “We wouldn’t complain if Arizona got a win. It’s like a pennant race--the team closest to you, you want to lose.”

For the Bruins, the victory over Arizona--built on attack defense, clutch shooting and senior Charles O’Bannon’s rising level of play and 26 points--was crucial after California ended UCLA’s 18-game home-court conference winning streak last week.

“We knew were going to have to get one back since we lost to Cal,” Lavin said. “USC got theirs back, after losing to us at the Sports Arena, when they swept the Oregon schools. We knew if we swept the Arizonas, we’d have the home-court advantage the rest of the season.

“For the race, this is what’s important: We’re the only team to win at SC and to win at Cal and to win at Arizona, three of the more difficult places to win this year.”

Inside the UCLA locker room after the game, Kris Johnson said, the Bruins experienced something like a catharsis.

So much has gone on this season--from Jim Harrick’s sudden dismissal two weeks before the first game to Lavin’s benchings of several key players for disciplinary reasons to the huge defeats against Kansas and Stanford--beating Arizona set loose wild feelings.

“It’s incredible that after all we’ve been through, we get a sweep against Arizona,” Johnson said. “We did it in 1995, and won the national championship. The ’92 team did it, and they made the Final Eight. Hopefully, it’s an indication of things to come.

“You should’ve seen the locker room last night. I think everybody just got a lot of stuff out last night--it was crazy. We were bumping each other, all the coaches were going crazy.

“I think it was like, the whole year, everything being suppressed and we were going up and down. Then this game, winning it like we did, everyone was just so overjoyed.”

UCLA at Arizona St. 1:30 p.m. Channel 7

USC at Arizona 3:30 p.m. Fox Sp. West

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Pac-10 Race

Conf.

*--*

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 9 Oregon State 2 10

*--*

Overall

*--*

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

*--*

THURSDAY’S GAMES

UCLA 66, Arizona 64

USC 72, Arizona State 66

Stanford 87, Oregon State 54

California 73, Oregon 66

TODAY’S GAMES

UCLA at Arizona State 1:30

USC at Arizona 3:30

Washington St. at Washington 7

Oregon State at California 7:30

Oregon at Stanford 7:30