UCLA Sputters, Soars, Crashes at Finish Line

There’s no shame in losing a basketball game to North Carolina. But it was how UCLA lost Saturday that had the Bruins covering their faces and peering through the gaps between their fingers.

In one game that felt more like three, they stumbled out of the gate, mounted a remarkable second-half comeback, then disintegrated down the stretch to lose, 80-70, before a packed-to-the-rafters Pauley Pavilion and a national TV audience.

It was a series of Kodak moments for a team groping for consistency. In 40 minutes of basketball, the very same Bruins (4-4) looked horrendous, spectacular, then simply dog tired as No. 15 North Carolina (7-2) closed the door by making 16 of 17 free throws.

“This feels just as bad as losing to Northridge,” said point guard Earl Watson, who was bordering on despondent despite collecting 30 points, four steals and quite a bit of attention for spearheading a magnificent rally that briefly gave the Bruins a second-half lead.

That came after UCLA fell behind by 19 in the first half, a byproduct of its 0-for-10 start from the floor. The Bruins trailed 46-30 at halftime and looked nothing like a team gearing up for a tough Pacific 10 Conference schedule, which begins in less than two weeks.

Coach Steve Lavin called the first half “probably the poorest we’ve played all season,” which is saying something, considering the Bruins went 0 for 14 to start the Georgia Tech game.

UCLA made only 30% of its shots in the first half, a nine-for-30 performance that left Pauley quiet as a mausoleum. North Carolina, led by sharpshooting guard Joseph Forte (29 points), shot 55.9% in the first half.

Typical of this schizophrenic UCLA season, the Bruins emerged from the locker room a different team in the second half. They clamped down on defense, applying a suffocating press that forced the Tar Heels into mistakes and bad shots. After scoring the first points of the second half--on a dunk--North Carolina came up empty on 11 consecutive possessions.

That allowed the Bruins to whittle away at the lead, getting great play from Watson and forward Matt Barnes, who finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and more than his share of bruises from banging inside.

Watson, too, might feel the physical effects of this game for a while. He was feisty from start to finish, once even tangling with 7-foot center Brendan Haywood and ripping the ball from his grasp. Not bad for a thin, 6-1 guy who looked like a Chihuahua snarling at a Great Dane.

“He mumbled something,” Haywood said later. “I looked at him and said, ‘Hey, it’s not that serious.’ I don’t need any testosterone chest bumping. I wasn’t going to be baited into anything like that.”

Regardless, UCLA already had momentum on its side.

With 8:20 remaining, Barnes stole a pass at midcourt, drove the lane and sank a one-handed leaner to forge the game’s first tie at 56-56. The crowd erupted. The place got even louder less than a minute later when Watson made a pair of free throws to give the Bruins their first lead.

The teams traded baskets for a few minutes before the Tar Heels began to break down the press and pull away.

“Give our guys credit for being mentally tough,” said North Carolina Coach Matt Doherty, who considered this his team’s first “marquee” victory of the season. “UCLA had a great run and the crowd behind them. We weathered the storm.”

The Tar Heels had some definite advantages from the start. Notably, they’re a much bigger and taller team than UCLA--from their front line of Haywood, 6-11 Kris Lang and 6-8 Jason Capel, to their off-the-bench banger Julius Peppers, a 6-6, 270-pound star linebacker on the football team.

After getting pushed around in the first half, the Bruins did a respectable job of holding their ground inside after halftime. They limited Haywood to six points--although his 0-for-6 performance from the free-throw line helped--and caught a break when Lang got into foul trouble and spent most of the second half on the bench.

“I don’t think we got punked inside at all,” said UCLA freshman T.J. Cummings, a 6-8 forward who started in place of center Dan Gadzuric.

Gadzuric, the team’s only true big man, was expected to start--Lavin told reporters Friday that he would--but sat out the opening four minutes because he missed so much practice last week while battling a cold and soreness in his right hand.

When he did play, Gadzuric didn’t make much of an impact. He finished with as many points (seven) as rebounds, was frequently muscled out of position and threw up his share of wild shots.

No one was colder than UCLA guard Ray Young, who missed all eight of his shots, five from behind the three-point arc. After the game, he sat slumped at his locker and studied the stat sheet with a blank stare.

“I had all the looks I wanted,” he said. “I got wide-open, good looks at the basket. Today, the ball just wasn’t falling. It wasn’t the defense at all; it was all me.”

Young might have blamed himself, but his teammates didn’t. They were reminded of what can happen when you dig a deep hole. Sometimes, there’s no way out.

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