UCLA wins thriller
Legal or illegal? Foul or no foul? Those were the salient questions after UCLA’s 81-80 victory over Cal on Saturday in Los Angeles.
The winning points came on a shot from behind the backboard by Josh Shipp with 1 second left.
Rule 7, section 1, article 3 of the NCAA rulebook states: “The ball shall be out of bounds when it passes over the backboard from any direction.”
Bill McCabe, the Pac-10 supervisor of officials, concurred. “If you shoot the ball over the backboard,” he said, “it’s out of bounds.”
McCabe, who was questioned about a foul call late in the Bruins’ victory over Stanford on Thursday night that allowed UCLA to send the game into overtime, asked the officials after Saturday’s game what they saw on the play.
“It comes right over the corner,” McCabe said. “After the game the official said it was too close to call.”
From a 62-51 deficit, UCLA outscored the Bears 18-10 to close to 72-69 with 4:26 remaining.
Arizona State 77, Oregon State 64: At Corvallis, Ore., the Sun Devils (19-11, 9-9) got career scoring highs from Eric Boateng and Jamelle McMillan, each scoring 12 points, and the Beavers (6-24, 0-18) became the first team in the Pacific-10 Conference to go winless in the league.
USC 77, (7) Stanford 64: At Los Angeles, O.J. Mayo scored 25 points, Taj Gibson added 20 points and 11 rebounds, and the Trojans (20-10, 11-7) dominated the backboards en route to a victory over the Cardinal (24-6, 13-5).
Oregon 78, Arizona 69: At Eugene, Ore., Tajuan Porter had 24 points and Bryce Taylor added 14 as the Ducks (18-12, 9-9) beat the Wildcats (18-13, 8-10) at McArthur Court.
It is the first time Arizona has finished with fewer than 11 Pac-10 wins since 1983-84.