Bruins Prove They Can Rebound

Coaches are fond of proclaiming losses to be valuable lessons. Once in a while, they even turn out to be telling the truth.

UCLA’s 97-92 overtime victory over Kentucky on Friday at Madison Square Garden, which gave the Bruins third place in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, was one of those lessons.

Stung by a season-opening 99-98 loss to Kansas on Thursday, the Bruins might have fallen apart Friday when leading scorer Jason Kapono fouled out with 3:35 left in regulation time and their lead, which was seven points with 4:31 to play, evaporated. Instead, they pulled together in overtime, led by six points from junior guard Ray Young and six from freshman forward T.J. Cummings.

“I’m a competitor. I wanted to go home 2-0, but this might be better for us in the long run,” said Young, who followed a 16-foot jumper by Cummings with a three-point shot from the left corner to launch the Bruins to an 85-80 lead with 2:09 left in overtime.

“Now we know how to bounce back. If you lose one, you can’t go to rock bottom. You have to come back and fight. The first game, when we lost by one point, was a tough battle. It shows a lot about our character and how Coach [Steve Lavin] has brought us mentally and physically up there. We run a lot and we complain all the time, but days like this, we’re glad. We had more left at the end than they did.”

They had stronger legs and surer hands than the Wildcats, who are 0-2 for the first time since the 1975-76 season. They had better balance to their scoring, with all five starters in double figures, and more resilience--and enough humility to realize they’re far from perfect.

The Bruins’ defensive deficiencies hurt them again and they were outrebounded for the second successive game, but they left New York with a good reading of their team psyche.

“This is what this team did last year down the stretch. They were all single-elimination games for us to get into the NCAA tournament,” Lavin said after defeating Kentucky for the first time in three tries.

“We’re kind of a throwback, old-school team in terms of toughness. What you always worry about, when your kids work so hard, is at some point you need some reward for all that hard work to keep yourself going. If you keep coming up short, moral victories don’t cut it.”

Another moral victory might have been too much for them to take. “We had to get it done,” said point guard Earl Watson, who had 20 points, nine assists, five rebounds and no turnovers in 39 minutes. “We were determined.”

That determination held up through a 9-0 surge that gave Kentucky a 29-25 lead with 6:05 left in the first half. Kapono scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half, making three of four three-point shots to propel the Bruins to a 42-41 lead.

The Wildcats, who had one freshman and two sophomores in their starting five, pulled ahead early in the second half thanks to a rain of three-pointers from Keith Bogans, who was six of eight from three-point range and finished with a game-high 25 points. Their biggest edge was three points, when Bogans converted a free throw for a 61-58 lead with 10:12 left in the half.

The Bruins outscored them, 16-6, in the next 5:41, taking a 74-67 lead when Matt Barnes made a pair of free throws with 4:31 remaining in regulation. But the Wildcats fought back, holding the Bruins to one field goal--a Dan Gadzuric jumper with 3:48 to go--and pressuring the Bruins into two turnovers.

Bogans sank two free throws to cut the Bruins’ lead to 76-75 with 1:40 to play, and the Bruins couldn’t get a shot off on their next possession. They got some help when Marvin Stone was fouled by Watson but missed his two free throws, and Gadzuric grabbed the rebound. Gadzuric was fouled by Gerald Fitch with 39.6 seconds left and made the first free throw but lofted an air ball on the second. Barnes fouled Tayshaun Prince--a former standout at Compton’s Dominguez High--and Prince converted both free throws to tie the score with 24.9 seconds left.

With a chance to win in regulation, the Bruins couldn’t get off a good shot. Watson tried to draw a foul call on Prince, but the referees didn’t buy it, and his shot bounded off the rim. “I wasn’t trying to act. There definitely was some contact,” Watson said. “I know Tayshaun real well and we just laughed it off.”

The Bruins laughed last. Without the outside threat Kapono poses, they became resourceful. Watson tied it at 80 with a layup and Cummings, who made an impressive debut Thursday with 24 points, made the 16-foot jumper that put the Bruins ahead for good. After both teams slogged through a free-throw festival, Cummings sealed the victory with a slam dunk off a full-court feed from Gadzuric with 2.3 seconds to play.

“We really wanted to be 2-0, but 1-1 is better than 0-2,” said Barnes, who sprained his left thumb late in the first half but played 37 minutes. “It feels like a very good win tonight.”

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STILL FRESH

Cummings struggles in regulation, then makes two big baskets in overtime. D9

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