Knight Comes to Rescue

The best rivalries involve more than banal student chants that insult the opposition. They overflow with a sense of entitlement. They hold sacred a sense of history. They reveal unlikely heroes.

UCLA and USC, teams stocked with veterans, understand this profoundly.

No wonder for 39 minutes and 59 seconds brains gave way to brawn, finesse to muscle. It was sweaty and sloppy, with bad passes, wrestling matches and mad scrambles.

But at the end, the softest, silkiest touch determined the outcome, a three-point shot off the left hand of Billy Knight, caressing the bottom of the net, giving the Bruins a 67-65 victory and setting off bedlam among the 12,810 Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA (16-6, 8-4 in Pacific 10 Conference play) remained in the race for the title, pulling even with USC, which has the same record and, amazingly, has scored two fewer points than the Bruins this season--the margin of victory in this game.

The players who had the most to lose--the seniors who knew this probably was their last rivalry game--stepped up down the stretch.

Seniors Sam Clancy, Brandon Granville and David Bluthenthal sparked the Trojans to a late rally that erased an 11-point deficit in the last six minutes. A three-point basket by Bluthenthal drew USC within one and Granville made two free throws with 33.9 seconds to play for a 65-64 lead.

UCLA whittled down the clock, but freshman guard Cedric Bozeman drove through the key and threw up a five-foot shot in traffic that missed badly. Dan Gadzuric--another senior--grabbed the rebound, missed a putback, grabbed the ball again and made a bounce pass to Knight, who capped a 14-point game with the winner.

“I caught the pass and it was slow motion, like ‘The Matrix,’” Knight said.

And until the final shot, the game was nearly as violent. Clancy, who recorded his eighth consecutive double-double with 24 points and 14 rebounds, and UCLA’s Jason Kapono, who had 26 points and eight rebounds, were the only hot shooters most of the game.

Everyone else seemed more intent on taking charges, throwing elbows, even throwing the ball into the back of a head, as Bruin Matt Barnes did to Trojan Errick Craven to save possession while falling out of bounds.

“They really punked us last time we played,” Barnes said, recalling USC’s 81-77 victory a month ago at the Forum. “We took that to heart and weren’t going to let it happen again.”

It took awhile for the Bruins to get going.

“In the first half we came out scared and tentative,” Coach Steve Lavin said. “In the second half we really competed, but then we lost our head and ran around without purpose.”

The first half ended the way the game did. Just when the fans began to rain boos on the sloppy Bruins for falling behind by nine, Knight and Barnes turned the momentum in the last three seconds.

Knight, who had missed a frantic three-point shot seconds earlier, charged Granville, who was rolling the ball up the floor to keep the clock from starting, and the ball ended up out of bounds off the Trojan guard. Barnes took the inbound pass and fired in a three at the buzzer to pull UCLA within 39-33.

The distance on the scoreboard was due in part to four long-distance shots from the left corner by three Trojans. Seldom-used Gennaro Busterna made two of them and also made a layup off a steal.

But the biggest factor was Clancy, who scored the first 10 Trojan points and had 17 points and 10 rebounds in the half. Most of his shots came inside five feet and three baskets came on putbacks.

UCLA tied the score at 40 less than three minutes into the second half, held USC to one field in the first 7:40 and led, 61-50, on a seven-point streak by Kapono. But the Bruins did not make another field goal until Knight’s winner and USC pulled ahead when Granville smartly drew several fouls away from the ball.

“We just came out stagnant to start the second half,” Clancy said. “Once I started to assert myself, that led to [the comeback].”

And finally to the incredible finish. For UCLA, a loss would have been another in a string of midseason disappointments for a veteran team that for the fifth year in a row lost to Stanford at home and to Arizona on the road.

“I am so happy for the seniors to get this win in their last game against USC in such dramatic fashion,” Lavin said. “It meant a lot to them.”

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Pac-10 Standings

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The Rivalry

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