Davis Returns In Bruin Romp

After all the months of waiting, all the months of rehabilitating his injured left knee and working himself back into shape, Baron Davis felt overjoyed to finally make his comeback.

Well, sort of overjoyed.

“I was really nervous,” Davis said. “I was afraid I was going to airball.”

The UCLA star certainly looked rusty against Delaware State on Wednesday night, but he threw a few pretty passes and made a layup or two, doing enough to finish with nine points and four assists in 16 minutes.

And that was enough to enliven UCLA’s otherwise mundane 109-67 victory before a crowd of 7,509 at Pauley Pavilion. It was the highlight of a game that included 18 points from center Jerome Moiso and lots of pressure defense from the Bruins.

“We played hard,” Davis said. “It felt great.”

Davis injured his knee in March, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament after a dunk against Michigan in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The 6-foot-2 1/2 guard was criticized for trying a flashy shot at a time when a layup would have sufficed. His coach remembers the moment all too clearly.

“When he came down . . . his foot stayed on the ground as his body started to pivot,” Steve Lavin said. “Bang. He came up limping.”

Then came surgery and months of rehabilitation. “The time I would spend playing basketball I was at home sleeping and eating,” Davis said.

But it took only a few weeks of workouts to shed most of the 20 pounds he gained and, from the start of practice in mid-November, Davis campaigned for a quick return.

Team doctors were cautious, limiting him to layup drills at first, not letting him dress for the season-opener against Santa Clara. Davis was allowed to resume scrimmaging about two weeks ago but was kept out of games.

All of which made for an eager young man who took the floor to an ovation at 13:22 of the first half.

The first time he touched the ball, Davis dribbled upcourt and passed to Rico Hines, who made a three-point shot from the left corner. The teammates repeated the sequence a few seconds later.

Then Davis drove hard to the basket, banging off Hornet forward Brandon Calvert, drawing the foul and making both free throws.

Three possessions, two assists and two points.

“I just wanted to go out there and get us running, get the energy level up,” Davis said.

There were never any signs that he was favoring the knee, but there were signs of rust. Near the end of the first half, Davis weaved through several defenders, drove the lane and thudded a layup off the bottom of the backboard. In the second half, on a fastbreak, he eschewed the dunk but missed a more conservative layup.

“I’m still lacking some of my explosiveness,” Davis said. “That’s just something I’ll have to work on day in and day out.”

Of course, there was a basketball game going on during all of this, but not much of one.

The Bruins (3-2) opened with a 10-0 run highlighted by two Dan Gadzuric dunks. Moiso, who had 25 points against Kentucky last week, continued his hot shooting close to the basket.

“I told him he would have enough of a green light as he needs to shoot,” Lavin said. “Most players would die for that.”

When the Bruins weren’t trying to pass inside to their big man, they were unveiling a small lineup and a full-court press.

Delaware State (1-4) did not handle the pressure well, turning the ball over 24 times. Guard Terence Hood occasionally sneaked behind the defense for wide-open baskets. Hood scored a game-high 26 points and teammate Stefan Malliet had 19, which included three-of-eight shooting on three-pointers.

But most often the Hornets stumbled. Things went so badly that Hood, who came into the game as the nation’s best foul shooter, missed two consecutive free throws at one point.

The lead was 54-36 at halftime and it only got worse from there. When Earl Watson lobbed a pass to JaRon Rush for a reverse alley-oop dunk, the Bruins led by 25. And when the Bruins forced consecutive turnovers with their press, Rush added to his 17 points with another dunk for a 78-48 lead.

Through all of this, Davis came on and off the floor, playing judicious minutes under the eye of team physician Gerald Finerman.

“I’m not going to sit there with a stopwatch,” Finerman said before the game. But the doctor had prescribed “approximately 15 minutes [of playing time] divided between the halves.”

That was enough to put a grin on Davis’ face. He was even happy to take a hard foul, one that sent a tremor of concern through the Pauley crowd, midway through the second half.

“Once you’re away from something you love so much, your hunger level goes up,” he said. “Being out there was so satisfying.”

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UCLA Report

Saturday, Oklahoma State at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim--Coach Eddie Sutton’s Cowboys come to the Wooden Classic with a 4-1 record, fresh off a stunning, last-second loss to the Florida Atlantic Owls on Tuesday night.