Pauley Want A Cougar? WSU Drops 39th In Row At Ucla As Team Sets Sights On The Nit

As much as it probably hurts Washington State fans to hear it, the truth must be told: The Cougars might never beat UCLA in Pauley Pavilion.

Not after Saturday’s disappointing 82-71 defeat to a beat-up Bruins team that seemed ripe for the taking.

Granted, defending national champion UCLA (23-7 overall and 16-2 in the Pacific-10 Conference) had already clinched its second consecutive league crown and was locked into one of the NCAA tournament berths that WSU so dearly wanted.

But this was still, perhaps, the Cougars’ best chance to end one of college basketball’s most remarkable runs of futility.

WSU came in on a roll, having won eight of its last 11 games. And, with J.R. Henderson sidelined with strep throat and omm’A Givens still recuperating from knee surgery, it caught UCLA with a bench almost as unproductive as its own.

And the Bruins’ plight worsened 5 minutes into the game when starting forward Kris Johnson was sidelined with a strained lower back.

But instead of building on an inspired first half that produced a 44-38 lead, WSU came out flat after intermission, let freshman Jelani McCoy have his way in the paint and ended up losing to UCLA on the road for the 39th time in 39 games.

The loss, witnessed by a crowd of 11,966, also dropped WSU’s Pauley Pavilion record against UCLA to 0-31 and snuffed out any chance the Cougars might have had of sneaking into the NCAA tournament.

Now coach Kevin Eastman and his players must wait to see if the NIT will be generous enough this afternoon to extend another invitation to a team that finished 16-11 overall and 8-10 in the Pac-10.

The fact that the Cougars made it to the quarterfinals of last year’s NIT should help their chances.

“Will we go?” Eastman asked. “I don’t know. Do we deserve to go? Without a doubt. We’re playing very well right now and we’d like the chance to compete for a championship.”

It was UCLA coach Jim Harrick who claimed earlier in the week that WSU might be good enough to win the NIT this time. And on Saturday, the Cougs played like champs early.

Senior forward Mark Hendrickson scored eight of his team-high 22 points during a 22-10 first-half run that helped produce WSU’s halftime lead. It helped, too, that Donminic Ellison through in a 55-foot desperation heave just before the buzzer.

But it took just 2 minutes of the second half and a couple of angry dunks by McCoy for UCLA to erase WSU’s advantage. And then, after trading baskets throughout much of the final 20 minutes, the Bruins used a dunk by Charles O’Bannon to ignite a late - and decisive - 10-4 run that was capped by Toby Bailey’s fall-away 3-pointer from deep on the right wing.

Bailey’s bucket put the Bruins up 78-70 with 36 seconds left.

O’Bannon finished with 24 points and McCoy added 20 as the Bruins shot 63.3 percent (31 of 49) from the field.

Ellison scored 14 points and handed out five assists for WSU.

Cougars scoring leader Isaac Fontaine did not score in the first half and finished with only nine points - almost 10 less than his average. It was the first time in 31 games that the junior guard failed to score in double figures.

Still, it was McCoy, a 6-foot-10 center, who stepped up and helped mask UCLA’s man-power shortage.

“We couldn’t stop McCoy,” Eastman said. “They established a block game in the first five or six possessions of the second half and he was dominant - even when he didn’t have the ball. You could see our kids kind of sucking in (on McCoy) and it opened up a little bit more the perimeter.”

Harrick said he had no qualms about turning to his fabulous freshman, who made nine of his 11 fieldgoal tries and finished with six dunks.

“At the half, I felt we needed a spark,” he said. “I thought we needed to go into McCoy, and that seemed to confuse them.”

UCLA 82, Washington St. 71

Washington St. (16-11) - Daniel 4-10 2-3 10, Hendrickson 9-11 3-4 22, Ellison 4-10 3-4 14, Fontaine 4-13 0-0 9, Antrum 5-12 0-1 10, Scott 1-4 0-0 2, Mack 2-2 0-0 4, Jackson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-62 8-12 71.

UCLA (23-7) - O’Bannon 9-14 4-5 24, K.Johnson 1-1 0-0 2, McCoy 9-11 2-3 20, Bailey 6-13 1-4 17, Dempsey 3-5 0-1 6, Dollar 2-3 5-6 10, Myers 1-1 1-1 3, Loyd 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-49 13-20 82.

Halftime-Washington St. 44, UCLA 38. 3-Point goals- Washington St. 5-15 (Ellison 3-5, Hendrickson 1-1, Fontaine 1-4, Scott 0-1, Antrum 0-4), UCLA 7-14 (Bailey 4-6, O’Bannon 2-4, Dollar 1-1, Loyd 0-1, Dempsey 0-2). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Washington St. 33 (Hendrickson 12), UCLA 23 (Dollar 5). Assists-Washington St. 12 (Ellison 5), UCLA 21 (Dempsey 9). Total fouls-Washington St. 18, UCLA 14. A-11,966.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: FINAL PAC-10 STANDINGS

League Overall W L PCT W L PCT UCLA 16 2 .889 23 7 .767 Arizona 13 5 .722 24 6 .800 Stanford 12 6 .667 19 8 .704 California 11 7 .611 17 10 .630 Wash. 9 9 .500 16 11 .593 Oregon 9 9 .500 16 13 .552 WSU 8 10 .444 16 11 .593 ASU 6 12 .333 11 16 .407 USC 4 14 .222 11 19 .367 Ore. St. 2 16 .111 4 23 .148