Bruins Shoot for Top Now

Pauley Pavilion crackled with energy. UCLA Coach Steve Lavin was quiet as a mime. And the rest of the Bruins were a little of both Thursday in their rematch against California--silent at times, scintillating at others.

In the end, their message came across loud and clear: This is not the same basketball team that lost by 29 at Berkeley last month. Not even close.

Fueled by the first-half shooting of Billy Knight and razor-sharp passing of Matt Barnes, the Bruins pulled away in the final minute to defeat Cal, 79-75, before a rollicking crowd of 11,753.

The UCLA victory sets up a Saturday showdown with No. 1 Stanford, a game likely to decide the Pacific 10 Conference championship.

“Stanford has to come in here,” said Earl Watson, who finished with a game-high 20 points. “The Pac-10 championship’s coming through Westwood, and we’re not going to give anything away. Where I’m from, people don’t steal, they take. And I’m going to do everything I can do to take my championship--our championship--for UCLA.”

That’s heady talk for the 12th-ranked Bruins (20-6, 13-2 in Pac-10) who were picked by many observers to finish third or fourth in conference, or maybe lower. They have won eight games in a row and 16 of 18.

Barnes, who finished with a game-high seven assists, had the ball in his hands for one of the biggest plays of the game. With one minute remaining, Barnes took a pass from Watson and broke a 74-74 tie with a twisting, up-and-under layup.

“I made a cut and Earl made a great pass to find me,” said Barnes, who helped his team overcome a seven-point deficit in the second half. “There were a couple of guys in my way, so I couldn’t go straight up with it. I just took it under and scored.”

Moments later, at the other end of the court, Barnes and Jason Kapono sandwiched Sean Lampley in the low post and forced a critical turnover. A lob pass into the post by Solomon Hughes grazed Lampley’s hands and bounced out of bounds, giving UCLA the ball and a stranglehold on the momentum.

With 24.8 seconds to play, Kapono made two free throws to give his team a bit of breathing room. None of the Bruins exhaled, though, until Barnes wrapped his hands around the final rebound, drew a foul and made one of two free throws to put the outcome on ice.

It was a particularly satisfying victory for Lavin, who was subdued throughout and seldom questioned the calls of the officials. There was good reason for that. He was put on probation by the conference this week in the wake of his sideline antics Saturday at Oregon State.

“I can be a very calm, composed coach when necessary,” Lavin said. “But I also feel there are times when you need to turn up the energy.”

That wasn’t a problem for the Pauley crowd, which was as lively as it was during the overtime victory against Arizona two weeks ago. Early in the game, that buzzing energy took Cal out of its rhythm. In the opening minutes, Lampley tossed a pass into press row, A.J. Diggs dribbled the ball off his foot, and Shantay Legans floated an alley-oop pass with no one on the receiving end.

The Bruins were crisp from the start, and got plenty of second chances thanks to the first-half rebounding of Dan Gadzuric (seven) and Barnes (six).

Knight, whose pattern in February was to follow a ho-hum Thursday game with a Saturday scorcher, veered from that trend in the first half. He made four three-pointers and headed for the locker room with 14 points.

Cal fell behind by as many as seven points in the first five minutes, then battled back. The visitors took their first lead, 31-30, when Legans knocked down a three-pointer.

Not to be outdone, Knight answered with three three-pointers within a span of 1:35 to help the Bruins reclaim the lead and the momentum.

After the game, Knight and his teammates were riding high, but victory didn’t completely wash away the embarrassment of the loss at Berkeley.

“We’re happy to win, but those kind of losses stick with you,” Barnes said. “Little bit of payback, I mean, we won the game. But we’re always going to have that in the back of our mind. Now, it’s way back there.”

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

BRUINS

FOR REAL

UCLA keeps looking better all the time, Bill Dwyre writes. D6

NOT OUT

OF WOODS

Arizona wins despite another bad game by center. D6