Bruins Finally Play Pauley Ball, Beat Cal

Basketball, so difficult for UCLA to master, was transformed into volleyball.

And in this, after several frantic, seemingly endless seconds, the Bruins were transformed into winners.

A missed shot by Dijon Thompson with nine seconds left in overtime was batted against the backboard, then crazily into the air, then again off the glass.

Thompson found it back in his hands, turned and tossed in a 10-foot fallaway shot from the left baseline that spiked No. 18 California, 76-75, Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion.

Cal had 6.2 seconds to answer but could not, enabling UCLA to snap losing streaks of 10 Pacific 10 Conference games and eight home games.

The long-running Pauley follies had officially ended, triggering an avalanche of students spilling onto the floor. They swarmed the Bruin players as if a championship had been won.

Winning at home for the first time in nine weeks will do that.

“It’s big for us to get a dub [W] for the fans,” forward T.J. Cummings said. “It’s even better for us because we needed that pat on the back.”

UCLA (6-16, 3-10 in the Pac-10) pulled half a game ahead of Washington in the race for the eighth and last berth in the conference tournament. With five regular-season games left, are the Bruins thinking postseason?

Not yet.

“Our main focus is to make this team go as far as it can,” Cummings said. “Our focus has been all over the place. If we start thinking about other teams, we’ll go off on a tangent.”

Like the one that nearly cost them the game against Cal (18-5, 11-3). The basket by Thompson was UCLA’s only field goal in overtime. But the Bears made only one of seven shots in the extra period.

The Bruins appeared as nervous and disorganized under pressure as ever. But they played energetic defense, causing jitters in their opponent, too.

“Nobody gave up,” senior Ray Young said. “We kept fighting.”

Young started at point guard for the first time in his career -- filling in for the injured Cedric Bozeman -- and scored a season-high 18 points in 36 minutes.

Young was not told until Thursday he would start at a position he had played only in summer league. But he made open shots. He made crisp passes. He played sound defense.

With the outcome on the line, though, Young, like so many of his teammates in so many games this season, faltered, forcing a shot in the last 70 seconds of regulation and missing two free throws in the last minute of overtime.

But at the end, there he was in the crowded key along with the other Bruins and Bears, swatting the ball like it was a flopping fish in a mountain stream.

“I got a hand on it and it ended up back at Dijon,” Young said. “That’s a bounce we needed.”

Thompson had 20 points, 11 rebounds and four assists, offsetting six of the Bruins’ 18 turnovers. UCLA won the rebound battle, 44-36, and outshot the Bears, 48.3% to 40.3%.

UCLA’s tenacious defense against Cal’s sharpshooting forwards Joe Shipp and Amit Tamir was a key. Shipp, the leading scorer in the Pac-10, scored 18 points on seven-for-18 shooting and Tamir made only five of 19 shots for 12 points.

The scoring burden fell to senior guard Brian Wethers, but with Bruin hands in his face, only nine of his 25 shots fell.

“I’m really proud of the kids,” UCLA Coach Steve Lavin said. “Some things really didn’t go our way. We were thinking, ‘Oh, no, here we go again.’ But we hung in and found a way to win.”

For the first time at home since Dec. 14, so long ago UCLA hadn’t yet hired Karl Dorrell as football coach.

And against an opponent having its best season in 43 years. It was the Bears’ first loss to a team with a losing record and dropped them into a tie for second place in the Pac-10 with Stanford.

UCLA dared Cal to take three-point shots in the first half and only three of 15 went in. When Jason Kapono made two free throws for a 38-33 edge, UCLA had a halftime lead for the fifth time in six games.

“We had many opportunities to win down the stretch, but we couldn’t make it happen,” Cal Coach Ben Braun said.