Still Pacific Stanford Time

The UCLA basketball team lost Saturday for the first time in nine games, and as the players shuffled out of Pauley Pavilion--the 85-79 defeat against No. 1 Stanford still fresh in their minds--it was clear they were missing something.

Anger, frustration and self-doubt.

Fans who might normally be calling for Coach Steve Lavin’s head were lining up to get a snapshot with him after the game.

Those tears Earl Watson wiped away stemmed from sentiment, nothing more. He played in his last game at Pauley and is still on track to become the first UCLA player to start every game for four years.

In the locker room, there was more hope than heartache.

“That was probably like a Final Four game right there,” guard Billy Knight said. “It’s good we got to play the No. 1 team twice. That’s just going to make us more prepared for when we get to the tournament.”

The Bruins might be better prepared for the NCAA tournament, but they didn’t get what they wanted. They were in the hunt for their first Pacific 10 Conference title since the 1996-97 season, and had designs on becoming the first team in college basketball to beat the same No. 1 twice in a season. They dropped to 20-7 overall and 13-3 in the Pac-10.

Stanford (27-1, 15-1) won at Pauley for the fourth consecutive season and clinched at least a share of its third conference title in a row. The Cardinal broke UCLA’s full-court press time after time, made all 15 of its free throws in the second half and outrebounded the Bruins, 40-27.

It didn’t help that UCLA center Dan Gadzuric got into early foul trouble and spent 21 minutes on the bench. Nor was it a plus that forward Jason Kapono was reduced to an afterthought in the offense, a glorified decoy, finishing with eight points on four-of-seven shooting.

“We knew the priorities this time--Earl Watson being first, and Jason Kapono being second,” said Cardinal Coach Mike Montgomery, whose team avenged its only loss. “We didn’t watch them enough last time and we overcommitted to help. They made wide-open shots. We didn’t let them do that this time.”

Stanford wasn’t only efficient, it was symmetrical in its scoring. Every member of the starting five scored in double figures, and four--Jarron and Jason Collins, Ryan Mendez and Casey Jacobsen--scored 16 points each.

“They were extremely sharp in all aspects of the game,” Lavin said. “I don’t think this was a situation where we played poorly. It’s one of those games where you can’t feel sorry for yourself. I’m very proud of our team and how our seniors represented us.”

But it was a junior who really made a splash. The player Stanford couldn’t contain was forward Matt Barnes, who scored a career-high 32 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Repeatedly, he would draw a bigger defender on the wing or top of the key, then blow past him to the hoop.

“I really felt it today,” he said. “I knew if they didn’t come out far enough, I was going to be able to knock that jumper down. But they crashed up on me, so I went by them every time. Earl and I were talking the whole time, and he said, ‘If they play up on you, go by them.’ So that’s what I did.”

Although at times it looked like a virtuoso performance by Barnes, he got a lot of help from Watson, who contributed 19 points, five assists and three steals. He showed all the trepidation of a crash-test dummy, tumbling out of bounds over a TV cameraman, sacrificing his body for loose balls, and opening a gash on his chin that required four stitches after the game.

“I took an elbow with about six minutes left,” said Watson, who finished the game with a large butterfly bandage on his chin.

The season-high crowd of 12,523--raucous enough to put to rest the notion that Pauley is a lifeless place--gave Watson a standing ovation and frequently chanted his name.

“I just blocked out the emotion before the game so I could concentrate on what I had to do,” he said. “For me, the Pac-10 championship was more important than Senior Day. That’s how I’ve always felt.”

Watson and Barnes worked the two-man game beautifully. They practiced that all summer, and it shows.

“Earl and I were talking, we said we had to take over, and that’s what we tried to do,” Barnes said. “But the two-man game isn’t going to beat Stanford. You need five, plus the bench and the coaching staff. No one or two players can beat Stanford, and that showed today.”

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THE REAL DEAL

Stanford needed a victory at UCLA to prove to all that its remarkable season is no fluke. Chris Dufresne writes. D10

WCC TOURNAMENT D8

NATIONAL ROUNDUP D9

PAC-10 ROUNDUP D10

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By The Numbers

32: Points by UCLA’s Matt Barnes, a career high

10: Free throws shot and made by Stanford’s Ryan Mendez

7: Shots by Jason Kapono, UCLA’s leading scorer

12,523: Attendance, a season high at Pauley Pavilion

8: UCLA’s winning streak before the game

226: Career steals for UCLA’s Earl Watson, a school record

6: Points for UCLA reserves

11-0: Stanford’s record on road

SECOND HOME

With Stanford’s victory Saturday, the Cardinal has won four consecutive games at Pauley Pavilion:

1998 Stanford 84-81

1999 Stanford 72-59

2000 Stanford 78-63

2001 Stanford 85-79

AVERAGE POINTS

Stanford 79.8

UCLA 70.5

STANDINGS

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Stanford 15 1 UCLA 13 3 Arizona 13 3 California 10 6 USC 9 7 Arizona St. 5 11 Washington St. 5 11 Oregon 4 13 Oregon St. 4 13 Washington 3 13

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