It’s Not Working Out in Close Games

It’s a situation rehearsed by every kid with a hoop in his driveway.

Clock winding down, ball in his hands. He beats the buzzer with a clutch basket or makes a deft pass to a teammate, who lays it in for the victory.

It’s also a situation UCLA can’t master.

The Bruins have lost every close game this season, repeatedly missing opportunities in the waning seconds. Their four victories all were by double-figure margins.

Blowing a three-point lead in the final 45 seconds and failing to score on the last possession of an 86-85 loss to USC on Wednesday was standard procedure.

It was the sixth time the Bruins (4-14, 2-8 in Pacific 10 Conference) have had a chance to win in the last minute and the sixth time poor planning, indecision and shaky nerves have won out.

“We don’t practice that situation very often because we don’t want to practice failure,” senior guard Ray Young said.

“We want to have the lead, not be playing catch-up.”

In an 83-79 loss to Oregon State on Saturday, Dijon Thompson was called for traveling with 10 seconds left and UCLA trailing by three.

In a 96-91 overtime loss to Oregon on Jan. 30, Cedric Bozeman put the ball in play from midcourt with 4.2 seconds left in regulation, but threw it into the backcourt. And with 13 seconds left in overtime, the ball was batted from Thompson’s hands with UCLA trailing by three.

In a 52-51 road loss to Stanford on Jan. 23, forward T.J. Cummings missed a potential game-winning layup with four seconds left.

In a 67-63 home loss to lightly regarded Northern Arizona Dec. 17, Jason Kapono missed an open three-point shot with five seconds to play and UCLA down by three.

In an 86-81 overtime loss to San Diego in the opener, Kapono and Bozeman missed shots that would have won in regulation.

“Sometimes it’s like we play too much one-on-one and forget each other in those situations,” Kapono said. “Other times we’ve had trouble on the inbounds pass. It’s always something.”