Davis Flies to Bruins’ Rescue

UCLA’s Era of Baron began for real here Saturday.

With flair, often in mid-air and almost always with a fierce and focused stare, freshman point guard Baron Davis wasn’t the only Bruin player who led the charge back from an 18-point third-quarter deficit.

But, when the team was most desperate, Davis was UCLA’s spark and its spectacle.

Davis ran down Alabama Birmingham, ran the offense, ran past any defender who tried to stop him, and ran the seventh-ranked Bruins to a surging, 86-72 victory in the fourth-place game of the Great Alaska Shootout before 8,700 at Sullivan Arena.

“Today, he just played a perfect game,” said UCLA senior Toby Bailey, who scored a career-high 28 points (20 in the fourth quarter), mostly working with and off Davis in the Bruins’ simple but savage two-man offensive attack.

Along the way, Davis revved up his entire team, scored 22 points--including 20 in the second half--and produced the play of the tournament: a flying, one-handed follow-up bank shot after his missed three-point try in the fourth quarter, as UCLA was moving close enough to shoot past UAB for good.

“Baron really brought up his intensity,” freshman forward Travis Reed said, “and we just took half of his and put it in us.”

Davis keyed an immediate UCLA 8-0 run after UAB grabbed a 52-34 lead and the Bruins kept the momentum. But the focus of the game changed for good with Davis’ signature follow-shot.

With about seven minutes left in the game, and UCLA trailing, 63-56, Davis fired a three-point shot from behind the top of the key, then bolted to the hoop--and through or over several players who stood between--to grab the short rebound and in one motion flip it in the basket.

“That was just determination,” Davis said. “That’s what our whole team has . . . we have so much heart.”

Said a smiling Reed of the play: “He kind of knocked me out of the way on that one. Took away my rebound. But it’s good when it’s my teammate.”

For most of the UCLA comeback, Coach Steve Lavin was content to give the ball to Davis, send him to Bailey’s side of the court, and let the two attack the basket.

Davis drew a rash of fouls from Blazer guards who could not stay in front of him, and Bailey cashed in on the UAB foul trouble by making 13 of 15 free throws.

“Coach Lav kept telling me, don’t think you’re being a hot dog or hogging the ball,” Davis said. “When you see an opening in the seam of the defense, you’ve got to exploit the seam.”

Three minutes later, Davis erased the final two points of the UAB lead by intercepting a pass and doing his best Michael Jordan double-dip slam at the other side to tie the score, 66-66.

“That was a little something to get us going,” Davis said. “Really, the thing I was trying to do was snatch the rim down, that’s how fired up I was.”

Meanwhile, J.R. Henderson scored 21 points and took care of the boards for UCLA, grabbing 13. The trio of Henderson, Davis and Bailey accounted for all but 15 of the Bruins’ points.

UAB had built its big leads (42-28 at halftime) by beating the smaller Bruins on the boards and posting up its big players for easy shots. Forward Willie Mitchell led UAB (3-3) with 19 points--16 of which came in the first half.

“The bottom line was, until we started getting rebounds, we weren’t going to win,” Lavin said. “And J.R. went out there and he was getting all of them.”

The victory gave UCLA two victories in this tournament after the season-opening embarrassment against North Carolina in the first round, and gives the Bruins reason to sense the improvement, even if neither of its two victories came against national powers.

Saturday, the Bruins face powerful New Mexico in the Wooden Classic at the Pond of Anaheim.

“I told the team we needed a tough, scrambling game,” Lavin said. “I don’t think you learn much by beating a Division II team by 30 points [Friday, UCLA beat Alaska Anchorage by 24].”

Bailey said it was good to see UCLA’s younger players rise to the occasion so early in the season--a trait the Bruins displayed last year when they came back from several late-game, double-digit deficits.

“I knew we had it in us last year, but I didn’t know what to expect from the freshmen this year,” Bailey said. “I guess our coaches only recruit players with heart, because they sure played with heart today.”

This also is the best start UCLA has had in three years; it opened the 1994-95 season 3-0.

“It’s good especially for our freshmen to keep their spirits up,” Bailey said.

“J.R. and I and Brandon [Loyd] I think can get over it, we know we can have a slow start and still have a successful season. But this is good for them to know that we can be a really good team.”

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No. 1 Arizona rebounded from loss to Duke and beat North Carolina Asheville, 97-69. C7