Victory a Possession Prize for the Bruins

In the topsy-turvy world of UCLA basketball, it’s the first Law of Lavin:

What goes down must come up.

One week after frittering a 20-point second-half lead against Arizona, two days after a sound beating at the hands of Stanford, 15 minutes after senior Matt Barnes called on his teammates to take pride in their defense, the Bruins defeated California, 64-57, Saturday night.

The victory enabled the No. 13 Bruins (14-5, 6-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference) to remain among a cluster of six teams with two or three losses at the halfway point of the conference schedule. Cal (14-4, 5-3) is another of the four teams with three losses, one fewer than USC and Oregon.

In the mind of Bruin Coach Steve Lavin, it’s all part of a clear plan. Less convinced are UCLA fans who are at once frustrated and exhilarated. The 12,275 at Pauley Pavilion watched in bemusement as the downtrodden players of only two days earlier transformed into rabid defenders and patient shooters.

“When you have older players and you lose two or three or four or five, they know what it means in the context of an entire season,” Lavin said. “What’s really important is, are we making progress?

“It doesn’t mean we are lowering the level of expectations with the program. But it’s important for the players to understand that teams get beat in college basketball. Just keep improving, so by tournament time, we’ll have a chance.”

This effort was a definite improvement. The Bears were unable to beat the Bruins off the dribble--as Stanford had done--and were unable to make three-point shots, as Arizona had done.

In an overtime victory over USC on Thursday, Cal made a school-record 15 three-pointers. They made five of 25 against the Bruins.

“Are we bad shooters or do we take ill-advised shots? That’s the age-old question,” Cal Coach Ben Braun said. “We were trying to win the game from the perimeter.”

All those long shots kept Dan Gadzuric out of foul trouble, which might have been the longest shot of all. The UCLA center fouled out of three of the previous four games, but he played 34 minutes and had no fouls for the first 31:24.

He also scored 13 points on five-of-eight shooting and helped UCLA to a 33-29 rebounding advantage by grabbing 11.

Cal wanted to work the ball inside and get Gadzuric to leave his feet and contest shots, but the Bruin defenders on the perimeter were more active than usual and the Bears settled for long-range jump shots, many of which missed wildly. Cal shot 37% and made a season-low 20 field goals.

“We totally went away from our game plan,” said Bear center Jamal Sampson, who took only three shots and made them all. “We just kept shooting from outside.”

Offensively, UCLA shared the ball and didn’t rush shots. Jason Kapono scored 17 points, Billy Knight had 16 and Barnes added 11. Point guard Cedric Bozeman had five points and five assists.

The starters each played at least 33 minutes and Lavin departed from his usual 10-player rotation. Rico Hines, who played five minutes after missing three games with a concussion, T.J. Cummings and Ryan Walcott were scoreless, freshman Dijon Thompson scored the only two points by a reserve and freshman forward Andre Patterson did not leave the bench.

“It was a slower game of few possessions, a conference grinder game, and we didn’t need the bench as much,” Lavin said.

Especially with Gadzuric playing intelligently. When he was called for his first foul with 8:26 to play and UCLA ahead, 50-46, the crowd applauded appreciatively. The Bruins were in the midst of a stifling defensive stretch where Cal scored only on three free throws in nine possessions.

A three-point basket by Joe Shipp got Cal within 52-50 with 3:15 to play, but UCLA stayed poised. Knight and Kapono each scored late in the shot clock for a six-point lead with 1:47 left. The Bruins weren’t threatened again.

“We were getting everyone touches and working for shots,” Barnes said. “That’s something we didn’t do against Stanford.”

Barnes took the team to task before the game, and the topic was defense. He reminded everyone of the lapses against Stanford, the easy penetration the Bruins allowed and the foolish fouls by Gadzuric that resulted.

“I said to take pride in locking up your man, working through screens and not relying on so many switches,” he said. “Then we went out and did it. This was a game we needed to win.”