Another Bear of a Game for Bruins

UCLA got into some serious Cal trouble again Saturday.

Exactly when the Bruins needed it least and would’ve been wounded by it most, California shot well enough and UCLA played sloppily enough for the game--and any chance at UCLA momentum into March--to come down to a handful of plays.

Toward the end of the Bruins’ sluggish 87-84 victory over California on Saturday, the Golden Bears were in the midst of their usual peerless Pauley Pavilion performance, scrambling to the brink of another upset . . .

And this time, two days after losing to Stanford, J.R. Henderson, Kris Johnson and the rest of the ninth-ranked Bruins pulled it together just enough to avoid a major mid-February flop.

“I felt we just had to win this one, there was no question,” said Henderson, who scored 11 of his 23 points on free throws. “If we had lost, everybody’s spirits would’ve been down, and we’d be wondering what’s going on.

“But it takes just a little concentration, and there’s no telling what we can do.”

After Cal erased a 75-68 lead to tie the score, 75-75, with 4:42 left, UCLA (19-5 overall, 9-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference) started to pick up its play.

With Coach Steve Lavin keeping Henderson and Baron Davis in the game despite four fouls apiece, UCLA made nine of 10 free throws in the final 4:30, and held up defensively during the biggest Cal offensive possessions.

The Bears, with Geno Carlisle soaring past UCLA defenders for a career-high 31 points and center Sean Marks running free for a stunning 23, got within one point twice in the last 90 seconds, then saw Carlisle’s desperate three-point try bang off the back rim in the final moments.

“I’ve got to say,” a relieved Henderson said of Carlisle’s twisting 24-foot shot that had the crowd of 11,497 in tense anticipation, “it looked pretty good.”

With one of its least-talented teams in years, Cal (9-12, 5-7) lost for only the second time in six seasons at Pauley.

But for UCLA, the bigger meaning of this game is what the Bruins barely avoided--the last time UCLA was swept on a two-game Pac-10 homestand was during the 1989-90 season (Jim Harrick’s second at UCLA), when Cal and Stanford went 2-0 at Pauley.

“We’d like to have a lot easier games, but that’s going to make us tougher,” said Johnson, who carried the Bruins offensively for most of the game, scoring a season-high 28 points. “We weren’t thinking that if we lose, that’s the first time in eight years.

“We’re just thinking about getting better.”

Johnson (who made 10 of 17 field-goal tries) has cut up Cal consistently throughout his UCLA career: In the six Cal games since his sophomore season began, Johnson has averaged 21.2 points against the Golden Bears, including a career-high 36 in 1995-96.

If you toss out a four-point, injury-plagued effort last season, Johnson’s average against the Bears goes up to 24.6.

After losing at Oregon on Feb. 5, hanging on to a tense victory over Oregon State two days later, then losing to Stanford at home--and with several very tough games ahead--Lavin said any kind of victory over Cal was worth savoring.

“It was kind of an ugly Pac-10 win,” Lavin said. “But we’re 19-5.”

But scraping by against the seventh-place team in the conference--a team that lost by only one to UCLA in Oakland earlier this season--is not precisely how the Bruins are used to gearing up for late-season flourishes.

The Bears made 55.8% of their field-goal tries against a UCLA defense still yielding wide-open shots, and the Bruins’ half-court offense was, as it has been for several games, unorganized and stagnant.

“We’re trying to improve, and it’s real frustrating that we’re not where I think we should be--which is a dominating force in the Pac-10,” Henderson said.

“That’s what I believe we have the talent to be. And when it doesn’t happen, that’s the frustrating thing.”

Said freshman guard Earl Watson: “I agree with J.R.--100%. We all agree with J.R. The only thing that’s holding us back is us.”

Senior guard Toby Bailey, looking out of rhythm on offense, endured his worst game of the season, making only two of nine field-goal tries, scoring seven points and committing eight turnovers in 39 minutes.

“I told him he’s allowed to have a bad game,” Lavin said of Bailey. “I fall into thinking sometimes that he’s Superman, because he does so many things and he can score so quickly. But everybody can have a bad game.

“And you don’t want to take him out because he’s gone through bad stretches before and still been able to take over in the final minutes.”

For UCLA, the brightest individual play came from a surprising source: Freshman swingman Rico Hines, who has played in only 12 games, made back-to-back three-point baskets in a first-half stretch and scored all nine of his points in the first half.

“Baron told me to shoot it,” said Hines of his first long-range shot. “And when I released it, it felt good.”

His second three-point basket, coming after a pass from Watson, brought a huge smile to Watson’s normally expressionless face.

“They’re always getting on me to shoot it more, to quit passing up shots,” Hines said.

Said Davis of Hines: “He did just what he needs to do to get more playing time. I think he proved to the coaches and the players that he deserves to play.”