If Nothing Else, Nobody Can Call These Bruins Defenseless

The UCLA basketball players skipped their pregame shoot-around Saturday morning, choosing to stay at the hotel and watch their counterparts, the football team, on television.

It was not a pleasant experience, seeing the football Bruins let a 10-point lead slip away against Miami.

“I was hoping we’d gain some inspiration . . . didn’t work out that way,” Coach Steve Lavin said. “But we did talk about defense.”

The lesson stuck. No. 18 UCLA summoned its best defensive performance of the season, hounding and harassing its way to a 69-66 victory over No. 11 Oklahoma State in the afternoon game of the Wooden Classic.

The Bruins did it with tenacity, limiting their opponent to 40% shooting from the field. They did it with athleticism, forcing the normally steady Cowboys into 25 turnovers.

“Their quickness hurt us,” Oklahoma State Coach Eddie Sutton said. “They forced us into too many mistakes.”

The Cowboys (4-2) were supposed to be the defensive specialists in this matchup, the team that has its roots in the 1930s traditions of former coach Hank Iba. UCLA (4-2) was expected to be young and explosive, a team that had scored 109 points against Delaware State a few nights before.

But from the start, it was the Bruins’ pressure defense that got their transition offense going. They simply did not allow Oklahoma State to settle into a rhythm on offense or defense.

That gave UCLA forward Jerome Moiso room to score on a turnaround jumper and left guard Baron Davis alone under the basket for a layup. It gave Earl Watson, who had a team-high 14 points and six assists, plenty of room to maneuver in the early going.

The sophomore guard weaved down the lane for two points and wriggled free under the basket for two more. When he wasn’t shooting, he was running the break, throwing a no-look pass to center Dan Gadzuric for another score.

All of that was good enough for a 41-33 lead at halftime. To make matters worse for Oklahoma State, the Cowboys lost their point guard, Doug Gottlieb, who picked up his second technical foul and was ejected for elbowing Davis just after the halftime buzzer.

“We had a chance to put them away,” Watson said. “We needed that killer instinct.”

On this day, that instinct was one thing that UCLA lacked. And Oklahoma State wasn’t about to give up.

“It was too early for us to panic,” Cowboy guard Adrian Peterson said. “We just wanted to relax and take away a lot of those easy baskets and make them set up in their half-court offense.”

In the second half, Oklahoma State was better able to control the pace, forcing UCLA into bad shots, then coming down on offense and patiently working for scores.

Peterson, who had a game-high 22 points, made a three-point shot from the top of the key to start a run. Guard Joe Adkins, who had 18 points and five assists, made another long shot to cut the lead to three points with 15:08 remaining.

But when UCLA forward Travis Reed made a tough shot inside and Gadzuric grabbed one of his career-high five steals, the lead was back to eight.

It went like that the rest of the way. The Cowboys would threaten a comeback only to have UCLA score a crucial basket or make a defensive stop or force another turnover to start the break.

Moiso made several clutch shots on his way to 13 points and seven rebounds. JaRon Rush came off the bench for seven points and three rebounds.

“It seems like we were playing catch-up all night long,” Sutton said. “They were playing a lot of people and we really got fatigued.”

Oklahoma State made its final push in the final minute as Adkins and Peterson each scored from three-point range to pull the team within three points again.

But, again, it was UCLA’s defense that made the difference.

With the seconds ticking down, Adkins had the ball in his hands and a chance to tie the game. The Cowboys were trying to get Peterson free on a staggered screen but the Bruins wouldn’t allow it.

So Adkins was forced to pull up for a jump shot. That’s when Davis rose up to block his shot and seal the victory.

“You have to be solid on defense,” said Davis, who said he took the UCLA football team’s loss to heart.

“That’s how you win championships,” he said. “You put people away defensively.”