Bruins Enjoy A Field Day Ucla Rally Sours Football Flavor, Ends WSU Home Winning Streak At 13 Games

There was a football-like atmosphere surrounding Saturday’s Pacific-10 Conference men’s basketball game between UCLA and Washington State.

Traffic on Grand Avenue was bumper-tobumper by 10 in the morning. Rock music, blaring from a fraternity house, could be heard blocks away. The parking lot at Dissmore’s IGA was full.

Some fans even engaged in a little modified tailgating by sneaking behind the Bruins’ team bus before tipoff and sharing a few tugs off a bottle of booze indiscreetly wrapped in a brown paper bag.

There was even a hint of upset in the crisp, wintry air.

But, alas, this was basketball. And this was UCLA. And there was simply no amount of pregame revelry - or noise from a Friel Court crowd of 11,463, for that matter - that was going keep the Pac-10 co-leaders from tending to business.

Buoyed by a career-high 28 points from freshman J.R. Henderson and a return to form by senior point guard Tyus Edney, the sixthranked Bruins pushed WSU aside in the final 10 minutes and bulled their way to a 98-83 win that was nowhere as convincing as the final score indicated.

“Obviously, this was nice win for us,” said a relieved Jim Harrick after watching his Bruins (9-2 Pac-10, 16-2 overall) snap WSU’s 13-game home winning streak and take sole possession of first place in the conference standings. “We took probably the best they had to give us.”

Kevin Eastman, whose Cougars slipped to 6-5 and 11-8, was in complete agreement.

“Our guys battled, our guys battled hard,” he said. “But let’s face it. They have some pretty darn good players.”

So many, in fact, that senior forward Ed O’Bannon was nearly invisible.

O’Bannon, a preseason candidate for national player of the year, did a splendid job in holding WSU’s Mark Hendrickson to 11 points. But he managed only 11 himself and was outrebounded by Hendrickson 10-8.

That one-on-one battle mattered little in the outcome. Henderson, who moved inside after 7-foot UCLA senior center George Zidek picked up his fourth foul early in the second half and went to the bench for the remainder of the game, was nearly unstoppable in making 10 of 12 shots from the field.

And Edney, who had been slowed recently by the flu, was dominating at the point. The 5-10 senior threw in 18 points, handed out 11 assists and made four steals, including two that helped erase a 60-56 WSU lead with just less than 14 minutes left.

“I thought Tyus Edney kind of dominated the game with his shooting, defense, steals, ball-handling and passing,” Harrick said. “We welcome him back to our team.”

WSU received a career-high 29 points from Shamon Antrum, 22 from Isaac Fontaine and 17 from Tavares Mack, but couldn’t hang with the Bruins down the stretch.

The Cougars, who trailed 45-42 at halftime, pulled within 72-71 on Antrum’s 3-pointer with 9:05 remaining. But UCLA promptly fired off nine unanswered points that all but settled the issue.

WSU closed within 86-81 on Fontaine’s steal and lay-in with 1:24 left, but then Mack picked up his fifth foul and Edney came up with a steal and 3-point assist to Henderson that sent the majority of those in the largest Friel Court crowd since 1983 toward the exits.

UCLA ended up shooting 61.7 percent from the field.

“They’ve got three pros (Edney, O’Bannon and Zidek),” Eastman said. “When they shoot like that, based on personnel differences, we don’t have a shot.”

The Cougars didn’t get much production out of their half-court offense in the second half, mainly because of Harrick’s decision to put his team into a zone.

“We won at Washington on Thursday with our zone press and then come over here and win with our zone defense, and we haven’t played that all year,” Harrick said.

The zone rendered Mack, who scored 15 first-half points, a nonfactor after intermission.

“With them, it’s tough because they’ve got guys 6-6 and 6-8 playing the two and three spots,” Hendrickson said. “That makes for a big lineup, which makes it tough to get the ball inside if they have their hands out and they’re moving.

“We struggled a little bit to get it inside and then our perimeter shots weren’t falling.”

The Cougars shot only 43.8 percent from the floor and were a dreadful 7 for 28 from 3-point range. Point guard Donminic Ellison, who was suspended for last month’s blowout loss to the Bruins in Los Angeles, made only one of the 10 shots he took and missed all seven 3-pointers he tried.

UCLA 98, Washington St.83

UCLA (16-2)

C.O’Bannon 4-11 4-6 13, E.O’Bannon 6-10 1-2 13, Zidek 4-5 1-1 9, Henderson 10-12 8-11 28, Edney 5-9 7-11 18, Dollar 0-1 0-0 0, Bailey 7-10 1-2 15, Myers 0-0 0-0 0, Nwankwo 1-2 0-0 2, Givens 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 37-60 22-33 98 .

WASHINGTON ST. (11-8)

Hendrickson 5-8 1-2 11, Mack 6-7 5-6 17, Fontaine 8-18 5-6 22, Antrum 7-18 9-9 29, Ellison 1-10 0-0 2, Griffin 0-1 0-0 0, Daniel 1-2 0-0 2, Vik 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-64 20-23 83.

Halftime-UCLA 45, Washington St. 42. 3-Point goals-UCLA 2-5 (Edney 1-1, C.O’Bannon 1-2, Dollar 0-1, Bailey 0-1), Washington St. 7-28 (Antrum 6-14, Fontaine 1-5, Hendrickson 0-2, Ellison 0-7). Fouled out-Mack. Rebounds-UCLA 37 (E.O’Bannon 8), Washington St. 30 (Hendrickson 10). Assists-UCLA 23 (Edney 11), Washington St. 14 (Ellison 9). Total fouls-UCLA 19, Washington St 23. Technical-C.O’Bannon. A-11,463.