Bruins Have a Knight’s Day

This time, Dan Gadzuric’s ankle complained.

Two days after his gritty performance in UCLA’s overtime victory over eighth-ranked Arizona, the Bruins had problems.

Gadzuric tried to play on his sore left ankle but wasn’t effective, failing to score and picking up four fouls in 13 minutes.

Earl Watson suffered a cut on his head that required two stitches.

Jason Kapono and Matt Barnes fouled out.

But the No. 24 Bruins, primed for one of those win-the-big-one, lose-the-little-one weeks, managed a 73-68 victory over Arizona State Saturday at Pauley Pavilion before a crowd of 7,953 far less frenzied than the sellout crowd for the Arizona game Thursday.

Four minutes after the opening tip, the Bruins had yet to score, missing their first six shots and turning the ball over twice in their first eight possessions.

The Sun Devils led, 10-0, before UCLA’s Ray Young made a baseline jumper with 15:47 left in the half.

“You could see it coming like a freight train,” Coach Steve Lavin said of what looked like a familiar UCLA letdown.

“You pull out all your best Lombardi speeches, talk about other teams and scores and what’s happened in college basketball. You talk about USC losing by 44 [to Arizona]. We tried everything.”

Thanks to the performances of the UCLA bench and forward Billy Knight--who scored 23 points, recording a career high for the second time since joining the starting lineup five games ago--the Bruins overcame their exhaustion and lack of early intensity.

“We always have that problem when we’re playing a lesser-quality team or whatever,” said Kapono, who made only one of four shots and scored nine points before fouling out with 2:14 remaining.

“We always seem to have a tough time. Most of it was we just weren’t up for the game.”

Arizona State (11-13, 3-10) seemed to be--particularly forward Awvee Storey, who had 26 points and 15 rebounds, including six offensive rebounds as the Sun Devils beat UCLA on the boards.

Despite a number of UCLA charges and a Bruin lead that was as large as 11 early in the second half, Arizona State was still there at the end, trailing by only two with 1:39 left after a driving reverse layup by Jonathan Howard.

Knight answered with a baseline jumper, then made one of two free throws after he was fouled on a defensive rebound.

A partial block of a Howard shot by Young and another free throw by Watson helped UCLA pull ahead by six with 24 seconds left, and the Bruins (17-6, 10-2 in Pacific 10 Conference) won what was an uncomfortably close game.

“We were not impressive today, probably a C-minus overall,” Lavin said. “But I’ll give our kids an A for character and heart for finding a way to grind out a ‘W’ with all the foul-outs and Earl with the stitches and Dan’s ankle.”

Watson’s head was cut in a tangle of bodies on a drive to the basket a little more than five minutes into the game.

After taking two stitches, he returned with 8:52 left in the half and the Bruins behind by six after trailing by as many as 12.

Ryan Bailey’s hustle coming off the bench helped spur the Bruins. He came up with the ball after the Bruins trapped Sun Devil guard Kyle Dodd on the press, and Young made two free throws to cut Arizona State’s lead to two. Young finished with 14 points.

A dunk by Barnes tied the score, 23-23, at the seven-minute mark, and a turnaround jumper by T.J. Cummings completed an 11-0 run and gave UCLA its first lead.

A 7-0 run by the Bruins in the final 1:19 of the first half gave UCLA a 36-29 halftime lead.

“Moose [Bailey] gave us a spark and T.J. hustled,” Watson said.

“Anyone can be a go-to guy. It can be Billy, Jason. Against Arizona, it was Dan.”

Gadzuric had 22 points and 17 rebounds against Arizona, then handed the baton to Knight.

“Billy’s started the last four or five games. I’m not sure how many he had against Arizona, but he had 20-something at Stanford, 18 at DePaul,” Watson said. “Everybody knows Billy’s a good player. All he needed was an opportunity, and he earned it.”

For all the trouble UCLA had with fouls, Arizona State had more. Three players fouled out and Coach Rob Evans and Dodd were both charged with questionable technicals.

“We put ourselves in position to win. Unfortunately we ran out of people,” Evans said. “We started missing shots and turning it over when we got tired.”

Both teams were guilty of that. Arizona State committed 23 turnovers, UCLA 22.

“If we want to get where we want to go, we’ve got to stop turning the ball over,” said Watson, who made eight steals but had six turnovers to go with his 15 points.

“You don’t care how you win as long as you win. But we have to clean things up.”

*

T.J. SIMERS

Inspirational Dalis says Lavin will be coaching Bruins next season. D2

PACIFIC 10

Stanford 11-1

UCLA 10-2

Arizona 10-3

California 8-4

USC 7-5

Oregon 4-9

Washington St. 4-9

Arizona St. 3-10

Oregon St. 3-10

Washington 3-10

STANFORD DOMINATES

No. 2-ranked Cardinal defeated Cal for the ninth consecutive time, 88-56. D6

PEPPERDINE FALLS SHORT

Gonzaga clinched the WCC title with an 82-69 home victory over the Waves. D6

SURPRISE IN LONG BEACH

The 49ers knocked Utah State out of a first-place tie with a 71-56 win. D6

IOWA ST. PLAYS LONG BALL

Two freshmen combined for 10 three-pointers in the Cyclones’ 79-71 victory over Kansas. D8