Cougs Miss Chance Ucla Survives WSU Comeback

Washington State had a chance.

A chance to forget, for a night, about a season with more losses than wins.

A chance to quell rumors of a coaching change in a basketball program with just 10 Pacific-10 Conference wins in its last 44 games.

A chance to beat No. 11 UCLA for the first time since 1993.

But that chance slipped right through the Cougars’ hands three times as the Bruins beat WSU 69-66 at Friel Court on Thursday night. With the loss, the Cougars fell to 8-11 overall and 2-6 in the Pac-10.

Twice in the last 1 minute, 25 seconds, WSU’s Chris Crosby threw the ball away on an inbounds play.

The first resulted in two free throws by Earl Watson and a 64-58 UCLA lead, the second a Ray Young dunk and a 68-63 Bruins lead with 18 seconds remaining.

But the Cougars still had a chance to pull off their first win over a ranked team in two seasons.

Jan-Michael Thomas hit a 3-pointer with 7.3 seconds left to cut the lead to 68-66. And, after Baron Davis only converted 1 of 2 free throws, the Cougars remained within three points, 69-66, with 6.9 remaining.

But bad things usually come in threes.

The coup de grace in WSU’s triumvirate of miscues occurred as the Cougars tried to rush the ball up the floor for a final shot and a possible tie.

What ensued was more like a scrum.

When the ball got to halfcourt, Thomas could not escape the Bruins defense. The ball came free and everybody went for it. Time expired. UCLA escaped.

“We were very fortunate to get out of here with a win for the third straight year,” said UCLA coach Steve Lavin, whose team moved to 15-4 and 6-2.

Especially considering the Bruins were playing from behind for the majority of the second half.

After trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half, and 11 at halftime, the Cougars wrestled the game back to a tie with 13:44 remaining.

“They were using their dribble penetration and breaking us down in the defense and we just weren’t doing anything to stop it,” said Davis, who, along with his teammates, didn’t get to bed until 5 a.m. because of a missed flight. “We just didn’t have any intensity at all on defense.”

The Cougars were able to pull out to five-point lead, 54-59, when Blake Pengelly nailed a 3-pointer with 9:10 left.

UCLA began to chip away, however.

With their twin towers, Dan Gadzuric and Jerome Moiso, snaring six of the team’s 14 second half offensive rebounds and getting dunk after dunk, the Bruins were able to get within one, 56-55, with 5:26 left.

After Moiso blocked an Eddie Miller shot on the next possession, the Bruins were poised to take the lead. And they did just that, getting six shots before Earl Watson finally got the ball to fall for a 57-56 advantage.

Moiso, who had 14 points and nine boards in 23 minutes, came up big again two possessions later. Following a missed free throw by Davis, he snared the offensive rebound, threw up a shot, missed, but followed it with left-handed snatch and slam. The Bruins were in the lead for good, 60-58 with 2:10 left.

“Instead of pointing the finger at the two out-of-bounds plays, point the finger at the no block-out,” said Eastman about the poor defense on the Davis free throw. “Those are what we call shouldn’t-get points.”

But the Bruins got those and many more, in and around the basket. In fact, every second-half UCLA basket was scored from within 5 feet of the hoop.

“I wasn’t using my quickness to get around them,” said Miller, who was giving up 4 inches and 40 pounds to UCLA’s post players. “I can’t just sit down in there and try and muscle those guys. I’ve got to do something else.”

“But it wasn’t all the post players’ fault,” added WSU guard Mike Bush. “It was the whole team.

“The guards, we were letting them get those passes into the post. We weren’t disrupting anything.”

And with the Bruins shooting layups, even the Cougars’ secondhalf shooting percentage of 63 percent wasn’t enough to win.

Washington State’s next chance for a win is against USC at Friel Court on Saturday.

UCLA 69, Washington St. 66

UCLA (15-4) - Moiso 5-9 3-4 14, Rush 1-9 2-2 4, Davis 2-10 7-13 11, Watson 2-6 2-4 7, Young 2-3 0-0 4, Reed 1-2 1-4 3, Loyd 1-1 0-0 3, Bailey 1-3 0-0 2, Barnes 2-3 0-0 5, Gadzuric 6-9 4-5 16. Totals 23-55 19-32 69.

Washington St. (8-11) - Mensah-Bonsu 5-9 4-4 14, Miller 5-11 5-5 15, Thomas 4-8 4-4 16, Bush 2-5 4-4 8, Kazadi 0-1 2-4 2, Pengelly 2-3 0-0 6, Crosby 1-6 2-2 5, Slotemaker 0-2 0-3 0. Totals 19-45 21-26 66.

Halftime-UCLA 35, Washington St. 24. 3-Point goals- UCLA 4-13 (Loyd 1-1, Barnes 1-1, Moiso 1-2, Watson 1-3, Bailey 0-1, Davis 0-2, Rush 0-3), Washington St. 7-14 (Thomas 4-7, Pengelly 2-3, Crosby 1-3, Kazabi 0-1). Fouled out-Bush. Rebounds-UCLA 34 (Moiso 9), Washington St. 32 (MensahBonsu 9). Assists-UCLA 13 (Davis 5), Washington St. 9 (Miller, Pengelly 4). Total fouls-UCLA 21, Washington St. 23. A-NA.