Stunned and Stunner

Send a disobedient child to a corner, it’s called a timeout.

Send an opposing free-throw shooter to the bench to make him think about the shot, that’s a timeout, too.

In UCLA’s case, perhaps a foolish one.

With the Bruins trailing by one with 2.3 seconds to play Saturday, Bruin Coach Steve Lavin burned his last timeout before Kyle Dodd of Arizona State shot a one-and-one free-throw opportunity.

“To freeze him like a field-goal kicker,” Lavin said.

Sure enough, Dodd missed the shot. Bruin Billy Knight grabbed the rebound, turned and saw 90 feet between him and the basket. He longed to call the timeout UCLA did not have, the timeout that was more important than whether or not Dodd made even two free throws.

Knight dribbled into traffic, panicked and traveled, Arizona State won, 69-68, and the crowd of 9,823 left Pauley Pavilion in disbelief. It was UCLA’s fourth consecutive game decided by one or two points--two victories and two defeats--and erased the pleasant memory of the thrilling victory over Arizona only two days earlier.

The Bruins’ win-one, lose-one pattern has lasted six weeks, which does not bode well for success in the Pacific 10 Conference or NCAA tournaments.

And it won’t keep UCLA (17-8, 9-5 in the Pac-10) in the conference title race much longer.

“That’s definitely not going to get it done,” forward Matt Barnes said.

Barnes was central to another difficult coaching decision. After Curtis Millage made a three-point basket for a 69-66 Sun Devil lead, Barnes was fouled rebounding Cedric Bozeman’s missed free throw with 7.1 seconds left.

He made the first and looked to the bench. The Bruins had only three fouls, meaning they could not quickly send Arizona State (14-10, 7-8) to the free-throw line on the ensuing possession.

Barnes wanted to know whether he should miss the second free throw purposely to give the Bruins a chance for a rebound and a tying or winning shot. Lavin said no, and Barnes made it to pull UCLA within one point.

But the Bruins had to foul Arizona State four times to create a free throw, finally getting Dodd to the line with 2.3 seconds left.

“I asked after the first one,” Barnes said. “I definitely thought I should miss it and tip it out, but you have to listen to your coach.”

This was Arizona State’s first victory at Pauley Pavilion in 15 years and only the second victory over the Bruins in the last 27 meetings. And it was accomplished with two key players sidelined because of injury--forward Awvee Storey and Kenny Crandall.

“We don’t have to come down here next year and hear about not winning since 1987,” Sun Devil Coach Rob Evans said. “We can talk about basketball and not streaks.”

UCLA can’t say much about streaks, either. After winning nine in a row in December and early January, the Bruins have run in place, going 6-6. Much is made of how UCLA typically builds momentum as the NCAA tournament approaches, but it isn’t happening this season.

“It’s back to square one,” forward Jason Kapono said. “Every time there is a positive step and we think we are growing as a team, there’s a game like this.”

Kapono, UCLA’s leading scorer, took only seven shots, making three--all from three-point range. Arizona State surprised UCLA by coming out in a zone defense that focused on Kapono, and he had few open looks, scoring 13 points.

“We were kind of lost out there,” he said. “We haven’t worked that much on our zone offense and we were too passive.”

Center Dan Gadzuric, coming off his best game of the season, again led the Bruins with 17 points. Bozeman, coming off perhaps his worst game of the season, bounced back with 13 points and four assists, making five of six shots, including his only three-point attempt.

Arizona State countered with senior center Chad Prewitt, one of the conference’s hottest players. He scored 22 points and made all five three-point shots, important because his teammates made only three of 14 from long range.

UCLA scored the first seven points, but Arizona State rallied to lead, 28-14. The Bruins pulled within 36-31 at halftime on Ryan Walcott’s three-pointer at the buzzer.

The second half was close--neither team led by more than three in the last 10 minutes despite UCLA not making a field goal in the final 5:15.

The outcome was decided by oddities. Too many fouls to give. Too few timeouts to take. And whether Barnes should have purposely missed his last free throw.

Lavin readily acknowledged making poor decisions in the closing minutes of a one-point loss a week ago at Villanova. This time he seemed unsure.

“We lost the game so a lot of things cost us,” Lavin said. “In hindsight ...”

His voice trailed off, the postgame news conference was over, and he quickly made a decision no one could second-guess, ducking out a side door and out of Pauley Pavilion rather than returning to the floor and facing more scrutiny.