Bruins Show They Have a Little Extra

In a quirky scheduling twist, the UCLA and USC basketball teams flew to Oregon on the same plane.

Saturday, the 15th-ranked Bruins almost wound up in the same boat.

They narrowly averted a loss to Oregon State--a team that beat the Trojans by 15 two days earlier--and needed overtime to pull out a 68-65 victory before a crowd of 8,607 at Gill Coliseum.

Although they were behind most of the game, the Bruins never trailed in overtime. They surged ahead by four when Billy Knight drained a three-pointer from the corner with 50 seconds to play, then clung to their lead when Earl Watson and Matt Barnes sank four of six free throws.

A layup by Oregon State’s Deaundra Tanner cut the lead to one point with 14 seconds remaining. On the ensuing inbounds play, Watson found Barnes with a long baseball pass, and Jason Heide was charged with an intentional foul for grabbing Barnes around the waist as not to give up the uncontested layup.

“Earl and I talked about doing that,” Barnes said. “They weren’t really expecting me to go deep because I’m usually the one taking the ball out. So I was wide open and he threw it to me. I only made one of the free throws, but we got the ball back and they fouled Earl. At that point, I knew we had the game.”

The Bruins, who improved to 19-6 overall and 11-2 in Pacific 10 Conference play, completed their first four-game sweep of the Oregon schools in Coach Steve Lavin’s tenure. The team is 3-0 in overtime games this season--victories over Kentucky, Arizona and the Beavers--and is 9-2 in those games under Lavin.

Oregon State (10-17, 4-11) nearly continued its streak of bumping off ranked teams on its home court. Arizona, then ranked third, fell here last season. A year earlier, the Beavers pulled off home upsets of No. 6 Stanford, No. 7 UCLA and No. 9 Arizona.

The crowd was primed for another shocker, especially when the Beavers headed for the locker room with a 33-25 halftime lead and maintained their edge deep into the second half.

Knight forged the first tie of the second half with 3:40 to play when he knocked down a three-pointer in front of the Bruin bench. Moments later, UCLA took a 55-53 lead when Barnes made a steal on the press and fed a pass to Watson for a layup.

The Bruins held a slim lead until the waning moments of regulation, when Oregon State’s Brian Jackson drove the baseline for what would have been the go-ahead dunk and was hammered by Dan Gadzuric with 18.5 seconds on the clock. Jackson made one of two foul shots to knot the score at 57, where it stayed until overtime.

Watson, who missed three free throws in the final minute of regulation, led all scorers with 20 points. Knight scored 16 and Gadzuric 15. The Beavers were paced by center Heide, who made eight of 10 shots from the floor for 19 points.

“[Heide] was so deep in the paint, that even if we did get help it was still like Nerf basketball,” Lavin said. “Or it was like Chief in ‘Cuckoo’s Nest.’ He just dropped it in. [Jack] Nicholson threw it up there, and he just dropped the thing in. ‘Get under the hoop, Chief, and drop it in there.’ ”

Lavin was in a playful mood in the aftermath of victory, his team’s seventh in a row, but he was anything but lighthearted during the game. It was obvious he thought he was getting a raw deal from the officials--especially Craig Grismore--and lost his cool several times.

On a few occasions, Lavin looked up pleadingly to Lou Campanelli, the Pac-10’s officiating coordinator, who was watching from the second deck. The coach angrily motioned to Grismore, then looked to Campanelli as if to ask, “Can you believe this guy?”

Looking as if he had to catch a flight, Campanelli left his seat and headed for the exit at the end of regulation. Clearly, he and Lavin saw things differently.

“They called one hell of a basketball game, I’ll tell you that,” Campanelli said. “I think they did an excellent job.”

Later, Lavin sidestepped the issue.

“When you get late in the year, there’s a tension in the air with each possession,” he said. “I’m just glad that we were able to get to the other side of overtime with a win.”

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COVERAGE

STANFORD 99, WASHINGTON 79

Jason Collins scored a career-high 33 points as No. 1 Stanford won easily. D10

DUKE 82, WAKE FOREST 80

Chris Duhon made an off-balance shot at the buzzer as the Blue Devils rallied. D9