It’s Crying Shame for the Bruins

It was their first conference game, not the first game they ever played together.

Even if it looked that way.

UCLA’s underachieving, disorganized, 24th-ranked Bruins reached new heights, or depths, Thursday night, falling on their faces and to the Washington Huskies by showing the inability to so much as run an offense down the stretch. Only the tears flowed.

The 63-62 defeat in the Pacific 10 opener before 9,012 at KeyArena came with a controversial call at the end that the Bruins could have used as a bail-out, the ruling by referee Bill Kennedy that Jason Kapono’s buzzer beater was a two-pointer and not from behind the arc. But even they would not dare attribute the crying in the locker room by several players and the slumping in the locker room to that one call, even if the decision by officials denied overtime.

It’s the one thing UCLA got right at the end.

“Defense, rebounding, playing hard, executing, closing out on the help side [defense]--you name it, we didn’t do it,” Kapono said.

OK. They didn’t:

* Have any court presence. Protecting a 60-58 lead, Earl Watson, the point guard and team captain, tried to dribble the clock down against mild pressure from Senque Carey, but instead was called for a five-second violation 35 feet from the basket with one minute remaining. Watson had no idea the officials had started the count.

“I didn’t even think he [Carey] was that close,” said Watson, who had some of the reddest eyes in the aftermath. “The referee made a big call. I’m not going to argue with him. They’re human. They make mistakes.”

* Play smart. When Washington got the ball back after that turnover, Deon Luton made a three-pointer from the left side with 39 seconds left, good for a 61-60 lead and the biggest basket on a night in which he made 10 of 15 shots and had a game-high 26 points. When the Bruins (8-3) got the ball back after that, they had three timeouts available and didn’t use any.

“In hindsight,” Coach Steve Lavin said, “a timeout looks like it would have been a good call.”

* Have the first clue what to do. A lot of pickup teams would have looked better with the game on the line. Instead, after opting against the timeout because they didn’t want Washington to get its defense set, the Bruins went into meltdown mode.

Jerome Moiso ended up with the ball about 18 feet out on the right side. He was left unguarded. He gave a pump fake to no one in particular. No teammates were coming to the ball. Moiso, chided by Lavin for the last year and a half for not being an aggressive enough shooter, looked as if he wanted no part of this one especially, then launched a shot that went long and barely hit the rim.

“I know I’m not supposed to take that shot,” he said. “I was looking to give the ball back to a guard.

“We needed a good shot. I made a bad judgment.”

* Get a break. Luton made two free throws for Washington (6-7) with 11 seconds left after being fouled intentionally to stop the clock, increasing the Huskies’ lead to 63-60. Watson went for the tie with about four seconds remaining, but missed. Moiso grabbed the offensive rebound and threw the ball out to Kapono on the left flat.

Kapono knew he was at the three-point line, but wasn’t able to look down at his specific location. He got the ball and released in an instant. Kennedy, a few feet away in perfect position, immediately ruled it a two-pointer, what appeared to be an accurate call without TV replays to corroborate because the game was not broadcast anywhere. Kapono looked at him in disbelief after the shot went through, then slammed his hand on the padded scorer’s table in anger.

“But that’s not even the point why we lost,” he said. “We should never have been in that position. Never been in that position. Down three at Washington? We have no one to blame but ourselves.”

*

USC 83

WASH. ST. 61

Trepagnier scores 18 points as Trojans, with their third victory in a row, get off to a fast start in Pac-10 play. Page 7

PACIFIC 10

WOMEN

UCLA, a heavy preseason favorite, hasn’t looked up to chal- lenge. USC can’t make a run for it yet.

Page 8