UCLA Shows Leadership

Rico Hines watched from the bench with a knowing smile. According to his five-minute rule, things were going well.

UCLA led by eight points. Four starters had already scored and point guard Cedric Bozeman had three assists.

Sure enough, the Bruins defeated Oregon State, 65-57, Thursday night in front of 8,959 at Pauley Pavilion, never trailing the last 38 minutes.

“With our laid-back team, it’s hard to tell how we’re going to come out,” said Hines, a senior reserve guard. “Nobody says much before games. But five minutes into the game, I can tell.”

Five minutes turned to 10, to halftime and beyond. Never did the Bruins relinquish the lead they seized two minutes into the game on Billy Knight’s three-point basket.

Despite the victory, UCLA (19-9, 11-6 in the Pacific 10 Conference) was eliminated in the race for the regular-season title because Oregon holds a two-game lead over the Bruins. UCLA completes the regular season with a home game against the Ducks on Saturday.

The loss was the seventh in a row against UCLA for the Beavers (12-16, 4-13) and ensured that Washington--not Oregon State--will be the No. 8 seeded team in the Pac-10 tournament.

“We are playing for second place and want to continue our momentum going into the conference tournament,” UCLA Coach Steve Lavin said. “But we need to play better. This was one of the ugliest games I’ve seen in my 11 years at UCLA.”

Turning in a strong 40-minute effort against a lesser opponent is always a difficult task for the Bruins.

Horrendous free-throw shooting, long second-half stretches without a field goal and porous man-to-man defense by UCLA allowed the slow, steady Beavers to crawl within two points four times in the last seven minutes.

Eventually, however, Oregon State took the award for bone-headed mistakes. Six Beaver players took the court after a timeout with 5:50 to play, resulting in a technical foul and two free throws by Jason Kapono, stretching a two-point lead to four.

And with less than a minute left and UCLA again up by four, Oregon State nervously passed the ball around like a hot potato and never got off a shot.

“We played some good defense late,” Hines said. “And we finally made some foul shots.”

After hitting only one of eight in the first 34 minutes, including a zero-for-six effort by Dan Gadzuric, the Bruins made their last 10 free throws.

UCLA had a balanced, if uneven, attack. Matt Barnes scored 14 points, Knight had 13, Kapono added 11 and T.J. Cummings scored 10. Bozeman equaled his season high with eight assists.

Cummings was one of five reserves to make a group contribution. He and Dijon Thompson, Andre Patterson, Ryan Walcott and Hines replaced the starters 5:34 into the second half with UCLA ahead, 44-37.

Seconds later, Joe See hit a three-point shot to pull the Beavers within four, but the quintet of reserves held its own for the next six minutes, and UCLA led, 50-44, when the starters returned.

“The second group picked us up,” Kapono said. “They didn’t score much, but they didn’t allow [Oregon State] to score, either.”

The Beavers shot only 32.8%. UCLA made 15 of 31 shots in the first half, but only eight of 22 in the second. Barnes played the best in the second half, scoring nine points and making several big defensive plays.

It didn’t appear the Bruins would need any late-game heroics when they led by 10 on Bozeman’s layup with 4:25 left in the first half. Oregon State scored the next six points, but Cummings made two jump shots and Barnes hit a three-pointer two seconds before the buzzer for a 37-29 lead.

Employing its relatively new motion offense, UCLA shared the ball. Eight players scored in the half and Bozeman contributed five assists.

Meanwhile, the Beavers made only eight of 28 shots from the field, staying as close as they did by making nine of 10 free throws while UCLA made just one of four.

All in all, a less-than-shining performance, but one that kept the Bruins in the hunt for a share of second place and a reasonably high seeding in the conference tournament.

“I had a great feeling after the first five minutes,” Hines said. “But we lacked intensity in the middle. We picked it up at the end, but we’ll need to play better to win games in the Pac-10 tournament.”