Davis Uses His Power of the Press

Baron Davis was not only the best player on the floor Thursday night, but, in a dizzying spell of wild, superstar moments, he seemed like the only one.

The highest jumper, the deadliest shooter, the manic man keying a punishing full-court pressure defense . . . Davis was all the difference UCLA needed in an 88-68 victory over Washington State before 10,024 at Pauley Pavilion.

“That’s pretty much what you expect him to do--it’s nothing out of the ordinary,” senior swingman Kris Johnson said of Davis, who scored 19 of his 21 points during a stunning 10:40 span to start the second half.

“I practice against the guy, I know what he can do--so when he pulls it out in a game, it’s, ‘OK, take it over, Baron.’ You know, he can do that, get the steal, do the cross-over, layup, and [get fouled], and keep doing it.

“He basically was carrying us for the first five minutes of the second half.”

Davis hadn’t had a explosion like that since the second game of this season, when he scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half to lead UCLA in a comeback victory over Alabama Birmingham.

With an assortment ball-fake, fade-away jumpers, pull-up 15-footers, and cross-over dribble dives to the hoop, Davis, a freshman who came to Westwood expected to have the instant impact of an Alcindor, Walton or Jason Kidd, personally outscored the Cougars, 19-17, to begin the second half.

Throw in the rest of the Bruins, and UCLA pummeled Washington State, 37-17, in the first 10:40 of the second half to give them a 70-51 lead and control of the game for good.

The UCLA press forced Washington State into an uncontrollable spree of second-half turnovers and kick-started a slumbering Bruin team that snoozed its way to a 34-33 deficit at halftime.

Davis made all eight of his shots in the second half, and made several of the fade-away jumpers that have not been falling consistently for him this season.

“When we press, we just create havoc out there, and that’s our kind of team ball,” said Davis, who also had seven assists and five steals. “When we’re running around out there, we’re just free, and that’s when everybody’s talent comes out.”

UCLA had 18 steals--the five by Davis, and four each by J.R. Henderson and Toby Bailey.

“When we go to the press, it’s kind of hard to figure out what’s going on--we force them into making decisions at high speed, and we just cut all of their water off,” Johnson said.

For the first time in a while, Coach Steve Lavin substituted freely in the first half, which meant that the eighth-ranked Bruins (16-3, 6-2 in Pacific 10 Conference) had the energy to press most of the second half--and take the Cougars right out of the game.

That might be an indicator of how the Bruins tackle big and brawny Washington in their key matchup for third place on Saturday.

“When we play a lot of guys, we’re a lot better team,” Davis said.

Said Johnson: “You can’t press with five guys the whole game. That’s unheard of. Like, when he gives me a rest, when I come back in, I’m hungry again. When you rotate bodies, we’ve all got fresher legs.”

Washington State (8-11, 1-7) committed seven turnovers in the first 3:40 of the second half, and turned it over 29 times in the game.

The defeat extended UCLA’s unbeaten Pauley Pavilion mark against Washington State to 33 games, dating to 1966, and brought the Bruins within one game of second-place Stanford, which lost at home to Arizona.

Once again, despite the rumors swirling for two weeks, center Jelani McCoy played, checking in with 13:48 left in the first half after Earl Watson picked up his second foul.

That was only the first substitution of many in the first 20 minutes for Lavin, who, until last week had been sticking to a tiring, six-man rotation.

Billy Knight, Travis Reed and Brandon Loyd also played, and for the first time since early December, UCLA ran players in and out like a regular basketball team.

The results in the first half, however, were unsuccessful, despite 13 turnovers by the Cougars.

After skating out to 11-5 and 26-20 leads, the Bruins began to get beat up on the boards and gave up a handful of easy Cougar baskets inside.

In the last 7:23 of the half, with starting forward Carlos Daniel (eight first-half points, a team-high 18 overall) and reserves Kojo Mensah-Bonsu and Steve Slotemaker leading the way, Washington State outscored UCLA, 14-7, to grab a 34-33 lead at halftime.

“I thought the first half was slow and terrible,” Lavin said. “There was no ball movement, spacing, screening or man movement. I told them at the half that we had to have a different tempo.”

Henderson struggled at times with Daniel’s physical play, but he led the Bruins with 11 first-half points, and finished with 17 points and seven rebounds.

In 10 minutes, McCoy--who played only 14 minutes last Sunday against Louisville and did not take a shot--scored eight points and had two rebounds.

Said Cougar Coach Kevin Eastman: “I’m sure Lavin went in at halftime and said, ‘This is Washington State, and we can’t allow this to happen.’ ”