Bruins Win Big but Lose Gadzuric

UCLA recorded a big victory and suffered a major loss Thursday, crushing Washington State, 100-61, before 10,486 at Pauley Pavilion, hours after learning it will be without center Dan Gadzuric for the rest of the season because of a knee injury.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” Coach Steve Lavin said of the emotional boost that came as Baron Davis had 17 points and tied his career high with 11 assists and Brandon Loyd made four of seven three-point shots.

Gadzuric underwent a 90-minute operation earlier in the day to remove torn cartilage in his left knee, after an MRI taken the night before revealed the extent of the injury.

Doctors said he will begin a rehabilitation program in about six weeks. It should be about three months before Gadzuric is able to play basketball again, so the Bruins expect him to be ready for the start of next season.

That doesn’t do anything for them at the end of this one.

UCLA (20-7, 10-5 in Pacific 10 Conference) lost its biggest inside presence with four games left in the regular season and two weeks before the start of the NCAA tournament with its seeding still very much in doubt. No only that, the 15th-ranked Bruins lost him at a time when no one seems capable of filling the void.

Jerome Moiso, who would ordinarily move from power forward to center, is hobbled by sore arches, shows no signs of being able to play 25 minutes, and again Thursday grimaced his way through parts of his court time.

Travis Reed, a post-up threat, has fallen to such disfavor that he has gone from being the first big man off the bench to having played at least 11 minutes only once in the four games before Washington State.

That’s when the Bruins--this time forced into a lineup change, instead of the usual optional alteration--opened with 6-foot-7 Matt Barnes and 6-5 1/2 Sean Farnham as its power players.

Of course, the Bruins also opened by getting three offensive rebounds on the game’s first possession, but that was likely misplaced optimism for the long run. Washington State’s biggest starter was a 6-6 sophomore who came in averaging 5.4 boards.

Gadzuric, who suffered the injury on the outside of his left leg while moving laterally during a conditioning drill Wednesday, was contributing 5.7 rebounds. That was only third on the team heading into the Washington State game, partly because season-long problems with tendinitis in both knees had limited him to 20 minutes per outing, but the 6-10 freshman was also first on the team in shooting and tied for seventh in the Pac-10 in blocks.

In fact, he had 10 more blocks than the next closest Bruin, Moiso, and Moiso had played 83 more minutes. Gadzuric’s inside presence was one of the reasons UCLA was third in the conference in shooting defense--a percentage that dropped from 43.1 in league play to 42 his first night out because Washington State managed only 26.9 (14 of 52).

That included a 27.3% opening half, along with 19 of their eventual 31 turnovers, as the Cougars (10-17, 4-12) fell behind, 15-2.

“I will try to produce as he had,” said Moiso, who played 16 minutes after going 12 on Sunday against Syracuse. “And all the team will have to together. We’ve all got to step up our games.”

Added Barnes: “We had to pull together and do this for Dan. It’s disappointing, but we’ve dedicated the rest of the season to him.”

The light-hearted mood that came Thursday helped. The Bruins, reaching 20 wins for the 11th consecutive season, led by as many as 48 points on two occasions midway through the second half.

Sloppy play down the stretch as UCLA committed 14 turnovers in the second half and a season-high 25 in all, helped Washington State get the margin back down to the 30s. This came even though Davis--wearing a white sweatband around his right knee with DAN 50 written in blue marker--went back in with 6:50 remaining and the Bruins up, 86-40.

“We thought they would be inspired by the injury to Dan Gadzuric,” Cougar Coach Kevin Eastman said. “It would have been better for us if Gadzuric would have played.”

The Bruins would second that emotion.

* USC WINS

Trepagnier sparks upset of Washington. Page 10