Oregon Swing Is a Crucial Journey

This has been a hospitable destination for UCLA over the years, and a visit to musty Gill Coliseum might be just what the doctor ordered for a team on life support.

The Bruins, losers of three in a row and 11 of 13, must win either tonight or Saturday at Oregon to cement a berth in the Pacific 10 Conference tournament, and Oregon State is clearly the better bet.

Winning at Oregon’s house of horrors known as McArthur Court is a far more frightening proposition, Oregon State’s Halloween-evoking orange-and-black colors notwithstanding.

UCLA has won here the last four seasons and leads the series against the Beavers, 75-30. The Bruins defeated Oregon State earlier this season at Pauley Pavilion, 77-66, scoring a season-high 53 second-half points.

“After you beat a team, you can play with confidence that you can beat them,” Bruin guard Jon Crispin said.

Confidence, however, is not particularly high on the Bruins’ list of qualities. In fact, they are reeling from consecutive losses to Stanford, USC and Notre Dame -- and from blistering closed-door tongue-lashings from Coach Ben Howland.

A turnaround can wait no longer. UCLA could finish as high as fourth with two victories, or as low as ninth and out of the conference tournament with two losses.

“I wish I could say it was unbelievable, but it is what it is,” point guard Cedric Bozeman said. “Anything to end on a positive note would be great for the team.”

Oregon State, currently in ninth place, has its own agenda. Victories over UCLA and USC this week could pull the Beavers into a logjam of teams with seven victories and vault them into the conference tournament.

UCLA would lose a tiebreaker to USC because the Trojans swept their series. UCLA is in a good position with the next tiebreaker -- victories over the highest-seeded conference teams. First-place Stanford is unbeaten and UCLA has defeated second-place Washington twice. However, Oregon State has defeated third-place Arizona, which could overtake Washington in the standings this week.

“We’ll get in,” UCLA guard Ryan Walcott said. “If we win the next two we could finish fourth and play the fifth seed. We can beat whoever that is.

“The position we put ourselves in is kind of tough. We’re still keeping our heads up.”

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Times staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this report.

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TONIGHT

at Oregon State, 7:30,

Fox Sports Net 2

Site -- Gill Coliseum.

Radio -- XTRA 1150/690.

Records -- UCLA 11-14, 7-9 in Pacific 10; Oregon State 11-15, 5-11.

Update -- Beaver forward David Lucas is one of four players to rank in the conference top 10 in scoring (17.5), field-goal percentage (53.8) and rebounding (6.9). Sophomore guard Chris Stevens has really come on for Oregon State, averaging 15.5 points. UCLA has a height advantage at every position. Freshman 6-foot-9 center Kyle Jeffers is Oregon State’s tallest starter. UCLA guard Brian Morrison, who sat out the last four games because of an ankle sprain, practiced Wednesday and is expected to play limited minutes.