The Dream Still Alive for Bruins

The beatings of last week were replaced Thursday night by a beat, one just as clear and strong but with a completely different meaning.

A heartbeat.

Their NCAA tournament hopes just about a flatline, the UCLA Bruins responded with a most vital sign, a 75-69 victory over Oregon before 7,672 at Pauley Pavilion that could prove a major boost to their postseason aspirations.

A loss would have meant a 13-12 record with five games left. A loss would have meant a four-game losing streak for the first time since 1989-90. A loss would have guaranteed a non-winning Pacific 10 Conference record for the first time since 1985-86.

So, a win meant everything.

“It was a big win for the obvious reasons,” Coach Steve Lavin said. “Most importantly, just for our spirits. When you’re this late in the season and have lost six of seven, you need something like this.”

Something like Earl Watson getting 22 points to equal his season high, 10 rebounds to set a career high, five assists and two steals. Or Jason Kapono scoring all 15 of his points in the second half, when the Bruins held off the Ducks to improve to 14-11 and 5-8 despite making only seven of 16 free throws over the final 2:09.

That’s in addition to the points the win over Oregon, 18-7 overall and in third place in the Pac-10 at 9-5, should score with the tournament selection committee.

“Hopefully it does,” Kapono said. “We need all the breaks we canget.”

Said Watson: “We needed a win. We needed a quality win like this to get us some momentum.”

Five games remain, Saturday against Oregon State, two in the Bay Area and two at home against the Washington schools, the last-place teams in the conference. The Bruins are confident that four victories in that time, and 18 in all, will get them to the NCAA tournament, instead of the NIT that was looming mightily just days earlier.

That was after the disastrous trip to Arizona. Needing any kind of change from that, they didn’t wait for the game to start to make one: Jerome Moiso was benched in favor of Sean Farnham at power forward.

It didn’t exactly rate as dropping the hammer on Moiso, though. He went in with the game all of 2:07 old, not long enough for Farnham to deliver whatever infusion of energy Lavin had been hoping for and hardly the kind of message that got Moiso playing with any added intensity when he did enter. Or maybe it was for superstition’s sake--the Bruins went in 8-1 in Farnham’s career starts, the only loss having come last season against Detroit Mercy in the first round of the NCAA tournament and two of the wins having come early in 1999-2000, against Iona and Morgan State.

So symbolic was the move, as opposed to a desire for a genuine contribution from Farnham, that he didn’t play again in the first half after being replaced. Moiso, meanwhile, went 14 minutes before the break and would have lasted longer if not for threefouls.

Farnham started the second half, just as he did last Saturday against Arizona, by which time the game had already become a rout. This time, it was a much different situation.

UCLA, which hadn’t even been able to offer a competitive showing against Stanford, Arizona and Oregon, the conference elite, took control midway through the first half even as Kapono played only five minutes because of early foul trouble. He left after 4:41, without a shot or a rebound.

Watson took care of both. He had 18 points in the first half alone, making five of eight field goals, including two three-pointers in as many tries. The 6-foot-1 guard also had seven rebounds.

*

UCLA

WOMEN LOSE

Maylana Martin scores 39 points, but it’s not nearly enough in an 89-72 setback to first-place Oregon at Eugene.

Page 10

SOUTHLAND

ROUNDUP

Pepperdine’s loss to San Diego prevents Waves from claiming a share of the WCC title. Long Beach tops Fullerton.

Page 10