Dollar Leaves Cougars Spent Bruin Runs The Floor In Final Seconds To Break WSU In Final Game, 87-86

What started as relief and bordered briefly on jubilation became cruel but hardly unusual punishment for Isaac Fontaine and his Washington State basketball teammates Saturday afternoon at Friel Court.

The painful metamorphosis took just 3.9 seconds, or the time Cameron Dollar needed to get open and dribble from midcourt for a layup that gave ninth-ranked UCLA an 87-86 victory over the Cougars before 7,926 disbelieving protesters.

Fontaine had made two free throws to give WSU an 86-85 lead with 4.5 seconds left. The Cougars had no timeouts and therefore could not set up their defense.

As the crowd celebrated what seemed destined to become Fontaine’s only career victory over the Bruins, J.R. Henderson inbounded to Charles O’Bannon, who passed immediately to a streaking Dollar.

“Dollar tried to veer off and cut, and the man was riding his tail so I didn’t want to chance it,” said Henderson, who led the Bruins with 21 points. “I just went to a sure target and that was Charles, and he got it to Cameron.”

The Cougars, wary of committing a foul that would have sent Dollar to the line for the potential game-winning free throws, did not challenge UCLA’s senior point guard until it was too late.

“I was thinking about just going,” Dollar said. “You’re going to make some of those, and you gotta know that you’re going to miss some of them (as Dollar had in the final seconds of a 74-71 loss to Louisville this season).

“Sometimes you swing and hit a home run, sometimes you strike out.”

Either way, Dollar and the Pacific-10 Conference champs expect to win the close ones. And why not? At 21-7 overall and 15-3 in the Pac-10, the Bruins could be as high as a No. 2 seed when NCAA Tournament pairings are announced today.

“It’s not an arrogance or a cockiness,” Dollar said. “Put in your time and when you’ve done the things you’re supposed to do, you expect to come out on top.”

Being surrounded by four future NBA draft picks helps, too. Fontaine’s predicament proves as much.

With 33 points, the WSU senior closed his college career with 2,003, becoming the 12th player in Pac-10 history to score at least 2,000. With 657 this season, Fontaine also broke Don Collins’ single-season school record of 647, set in 1980.

And yet there will be no fourth trip to the postseason for Fontaine; instead, his immediate future will be determined by how well he performs for the NBA scouts.

As for Saturday, his disappointment appeared fleeting.

“At first, everbody was disappointed and upset,” Fontaine said, “but after a while everybody realized this was our last game, our last time to be together, and everybody just started going around the locker room and congratulating each other and wishing everybody good luck in the future.”

The Cougars (13-17, 5-13 Pac-10), after all, had nearly defeated what is arguably the most talented college team in the nation. “It was a great, unbelievable effort,” coach Kevin Eastman said. “Truth be known, they had the potential to just blow us out like they did at Los Angeles (84-56, Jan. 2). We hung in there and did everything we could under the circumstances.”

Most of the time, anyway.

While there was nothing the Cougars could have done to prevent several controversial whistles - and none was more misguided than the intentional-foul call that took Carlos Daniel out of the game with 1:54 left - WSU had itself to blame in the end.

With 27.4 seconds left and the Cougars leading 84-82, Steve Slotemaker missed the front end of a one-and-one. UCLA rebounded, and Dollar scored an uncontested layup at the other end.

Slotemaker then threw away the ensuing inbounds pass. Toby Bailey intercepted for UCLA, was fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws for an 85-84 Bruins lead.

Twenty seconds remained - plenty of time for the Cougars to get a good shot, presumably for Fontaine. But UCLA intensified its defense and forced WSU to burn nearly 13 seconds before Slotemaker desperately signaled for timeout with 7.6 remaining.

The Cougars inbounded to Fontaine, who was trapped in front of the WSU bench by Dollar and Henderson. Fontaine tried to escape and was fouled by Henderson, setting up his go-ahead free throws.

Then came Dollar’s big play, which overshadowed several impressive individual performances.

Fontaine matched a career-high with five 3-pointers and led all players with five assists. One of his backcourt teammates, junior Rodrigo de la Fuente, set career marks with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Daniel finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and two blocks.

O’Bannon had 19 points and 11 rebounds for UCLA, but it was Bailey, with three 3-pointers, who hit most of the Bruins’ big shots.

UCLA 87, Washington St. 86

UCLA (21-7) - O’Bannon 8-12 2-3 19, Henderson 6-13 9-14 21, McCoy 4-8 2-5 10, Bailey 5-9 4-6 17, Dollar 6-13 3-5 16, Loyd 0-0 0-0 0, Myers 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 2-7 0-0 4. Totals 31-62 20-34 87.

Washington St. (13-17)- Fontaine 13-23 2-3 33, Daniel 7-13 2-3 16, Johnson 2-7 0-0 4, De la Fuente 7-12 3-4 18, Jackson 1-3 0-0 2, Pengelly 1-2 0-0 3, Archibald 1-3 0-0 2, Crosby 1-6 1-1 3, Slotemaker 2-6 0-1 5. Totals 35-75 8-12 86.

Halftime-UCLA 39, Washington St. 38. 3-Point goals-UCLA 5-12 (Bailey 3-4, Dollar 1-2, O’Bannon 1-5, Johnson 0-1), Washington St. 8-21 (Fontaine 5-8, Pengelly 1-2, Slotemaker 1-2, De la Fuente 0-1, Archibald 0-2, Crosby 0-4). Fouled out-Daniel, Pengelly. Rebounds-UCLA 43 (O’Bannon 11), Washington St. 38 (De la Fuente 12). Assists-UCLA 13 (Johnson, Bailey, Dollar 3), Washington St. 19 (Fontaine 5). Total fouls-UCLA 16, Washington St. 24. A-7,926.

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