Bruins’ Victors to Get No Spoils

UCLA finally found fast company Thursday, and won the ragged race to 100.

So, while USC was ruining Arizona’s perfect Pacific 10 season (and UCLA’s hopes of doing the ruining), the Bruins’ seniors maintained warp speed, sprinting to a 102-94 victory over Arizona State before 10,970 at Pauley Pavilion.

The Bruins admitted some disappointment that USC beat them to Arizona--the Wildcats come into Pauley to close the regular season Saturday--but reveled in the high-speed performance of their own.

“All year, one of us has been on for each game, but the other two were usually off in that game,” said Toby Bailey, who scored 22 points and had eight rebounds. “All three of us haven’t been clicking at the same time.

“Now, all three of us are playing good ball, and that’s what we need.”

How much did UCLA’s seniors dominate? Kris Johnson poured in a season-high 33 points, 23 in the second half, and J.R. Henderson added 25 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.

“This,” Johnson said, “is just what seniors are supposed to be doing at this time of year.”

This game started fast, really got going somewhere in the middle of the second half, then Arizona State, on the edge of NCAA tournament consideration, finally sagged--and the 19th-ranked Bruins kept flying.

In a matchup played at pickup-game tempo, the Bruins, who held a double-digit lead most of the game, fought off a late Sun Devil rally that closed it to 92-89 with 56 seconds left to play.

But Bailey scored the next six points of the game from that point, lifting UCLA (22-7, 12-5) to an insurmountable lead in the final seconds.

Arizona State, which put up a staggering 80 shots--and 24 three-pointers--dropped to 18-12 and 8-9.

“We like playing that way,” said Johnson, who made 11 of his 16 field-goal tries. “And in the end, we scored more than they did.”

When the Bruins got to their locker room after the final buzzer, they found out that USC had upset Arizona in overtime, and ended the Wildcats’ drive to finish Pac-10 play undefeated.

Now UCLA faces Arizona on Saturday with the hopes of giving Arizona a twice-defeated conference mark.

“We wanted to be the ones to blemish their record,” Bailey said of Arizona. “But that doesn’t change anything about the way we’re going to approach that game. It’s still the biggest game of our year.”

Said Johnson: “I’m not so much sad as I’m mad that ‘SC won. Whether Arizona’s 17-0 or 16-1 or whatever, it’s still a huge game for us on Saturday, our last game at Pauley, the whole thing.”

Sun Devil guard Jeremy Veal, who scored 31 points, dragged Arizona State back into contention with a series of offensive improvisations, turning a semi-comfortable UCLA lead into the normal final-minute thriller.

Veal’s spinning shot after an Arizona State steal narrowed it to three, 92-89, with 56 seconds left, but then Bailey converted a three-point play, made another free throw, then threw down a dunk in the open court to give the Bruins a nine-point lead.

“That’s the way I like to play,” said Bailey, who had a career-high 32 points Sunday against Washington. “As long as it’s going up and down, that’s when I’m comfortable.”

Said UCLA Coach Steve Lavin: “Tonight, we were able to force the tempo.”

In the first half, both teams’ wild offensive play led to general chaos, many wild Sun Devil jump shots, lots of UCLA fastbreaks, and, after a 16-4 run to close the half, a 47-37 Bruin lead.

Arizona State, which led, 33-31, with 4:24 left in the half, took 41 shots in the period, but made only 16.

Despite missing four of his five first-half free throws, Henderson led all halftime scorers with 17 points. Johnson added 10 in the half, and Bailey had nine.

A particularly impassioned Henderson, bouncing off several Arizona State body shots under the basket, also had 12 rebounds--only three short of his career high for a game--in the first half.

“We all know we’ve got to pick it up,” Bailey said, “and that’s what we’re doing.”