In the End, UCLA Has to Steal It

Bruised, desperate and teetering toward a TKO loss, UCLA stole one from the underdog in the last seconds of the last round Saturday night.

Looking worse for wear but tremendously relieved, the 10th-ranked Bruins needed guts and luck to pull off a 68-66 victory over Oregon before 11,713 at Pauley Pavilion.

After Baron Davis had converted on his final-minute steal and layup, after the Bruins had stopped Oregon’s last-ditch tying effort, after the final seconds had expired, Bruin Coach Steve Lavin celebrated as if he had just won the national title.

Or saved himself some major embarrassment.

Senior forward J.R. Henderson, who collapsed after Henry Madden stabbed a finger into his right eye in the first half, ignored what he called “the ultimate pain,” reentered the game in the panicky final minutes, and gave UCLA the emotional lift it needed.

“I wasn’t planning on playing [in the second half],” said Henderson, who scored five of UCLA’s last 12 points. “I was hoping the guys wouldn’t need me. But I didn’t want to hear any of those excuses: ‘J.R. wasn’t in there, so they lost.’ I didn’t want to hear none of that.”

With a bloodshot eye (doctors said it was a slightly damaged cornea) and a hand-sized welt under it, Henderson checked back in at the end of a 24-7 Duck run that reduced the UCLA lead to 54-52 with about 10 minutes left.

The Ducks, led by A.D. Smith’s career-high 23 points, consistently beat the Bruins to the backboard in the second half, and pulled ahead, 59-58, with about six minutes to play. Their latest lead was 66-64, after a basket by Jonathan Nelson with 1:22 left.

But Henderson, who ended up with 12 points, answered with a basket with 62 seconds left, to tie it, which set up the final drama.

“J.R.’s our leader, he’s this team’s heart and soul,” said Davis, who finished with eight assists and four steals. “He sucked it up from an injury and gave us the spark.”

Said Lavin of Henderson: “I was personally surprised he even wanted to come back into the game.”

With about 30 seconds left, Oregon guard Yasir Rosemond tried to create space by spinning away from Earl Watson at the top of the key and into Davis, who reached and knocked the ball straight to Watson.

Watson passed it to Davis, and his layup with 25 seconds left was the difference in the game.

Nelson missed a running shot with less than five seconds left, and UCLA (12-2, 3-1 in conference play) grabbed the rebound and headed to half court as the game ended.

But the lightly regarded Ducks (6-7, 1-3) opened some UCLA wounds and raised some serious questions about how long the Bruins can survive their own haphazard play.

Lavin said he blamed himself for experimenting so long with a new pressing defense and half-court zone defense.

“I’m trying to work on our zone and our press, but I didn’t want to cost us a win,” Lavin said.

But those were hardly the only reasons the Bruins struggled after jumping to a 23-3 lead.

The Bruins, sticking to Lavin’s six-man rotation (Davis, Watson and Toby Bailey played all 40 minutes), were outrebounded, 31-23, sagged noticeably defensively in the second half and were the more fatigued team at the end.

Guard Jamar Curry had six offensive rebounds and nine overall, and Oregon’s penetration allowed the Ducks to make 15 of their 28 shot attempts (53.6%) in the second half.

“We need to be able to put somebody away,” Lavin said, “and we give them second lives.”

Said Davis: “We just lose our intensity sometimes. We give them life when we should be pushing the dagger in. It’s hard to say why. Personally, I felt fine, but I don’t want to speak for my teammates.

“We have to find out what it is, whether it’s fatigue or whatever it is.”

The game began with a landslide.

Debuting a new full-court press and an aggressive zone defense, both fronted successfully by the 6-foot-8 Henderson, the Bruins harried Oregon into 11 turnovers in its first 16 possessions, leading directly to 15 UCLA points.

By the time the Ducks--who committed 15 turnovers in the first half--regained any sense of composure, the Bruins had taken 16-0 and 23-3 leads with 14:05 left in the first half, and dropped out of the press.

From there, the Ducks settled down enough to get back into the game, and take advantage of some soft Bruin transition defense.

Along the way, the Bruins temporarily lost Henderson, who got poked in the eye by Madden with 9:31 left in the half. Henderson tumbled to the ground and did not move for several minutes.