Monday, April 1, 1996
Disappointing loss forces m. hoops to fix errors, move onBy Melissa Anderson
and Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA men's basketball team, which had mastered the art of escape in a precarious run to the 1995 Pacific 10 Championship, chose a most inopportune moment to run out of answers.
Shackled by Princeton's match-up zone defense in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Bruins (23-8) turned in their worst offensive performance of the season and lost, 43-41 to a Tiger squad that has been well-known for its upset potential.
In fact, the loss was a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts for UCLA head coach Jim Harrick, who had experienced the scorn of a first-round loss to Tulsa two years ago.
The matchup with the Tigers (22-7) had all the makings of Harrick's worst nightmare. Under the direction of long-time head coach Pete Carril who announced his retirement just days before the tournament began Princeton had lost four consecutive first-round games by a combined 15 points, including a near upset of Georgetown in 1989 which ended in a 50-49 Tiger loss.
Carril's teams were always among the most fundamentally sound in the nation, and his slow-tempo brand of basketball was sure to cause fits for the Bruins, who struggled against similar teams during the regular season.
"You can't fall asleep or they'll pick you apart," Harrick said after the pairings were announced. "They're a very, very well coached team."
As it turned out, Harrick's concerns were not unfounded. Though his team jumped out to an early 7-0 lead and held a 16-9 advantage with 6:41 left in the first half, Harrick would watch in agony as the Bruins came up empty on six of their final seven possessions of the half.
Princeton, meanwhile, was operating Carril's offense to near perfection, and despite a .304 field goal shooting percentage, closed the halftime gap to 19-18 on a Gabe Lewullis layin with 18 seconds on the clock.
UCLA, which received only 21 minutes of action from a flu-ridden J.R. Henderson, continued to struggle early in the second half, and the Tigers went ahead, 23-21, with just under 15 minutes remaining.
The Bruins then received a spark from seldom-used freshman Brandon Loyd, who knocked down a pair of three pointers for a 29-26 lead, and two more treys by Toby Bailey left the score at 39-34 with nine minutes to go.
But Kris Johnson's layin with 6:13 left would constitute UCLA's last points of the game, and Princeton fueled by the emotion surrounding Carril's pending retirement and a partisan crowd hit the comeback trail.
"I know this country roots for the underdog, and we've been in that position before," Carril said. "We had the fans on our side tonight.
"If we played UCLA 100 times, they might win 99. But we won tonight, and it's a great win for these kids."
Sydney Johnson tied the game for the Tigers on a layin with 2:58 left, then appeared to blow the game two minutes later when he intentionally fouled Cameron Dollar after turning the ball over.
Dollar, however, missed both of his free throws, and Kris Johnson came up short on a runner in the lane on the Bruins' ensuing possession.
"We had enough chances to win," Harrick said. "We just didn't get it done. We missed some shots, missed some foul shots and turned the ball over too much."
The Tigers grabbed the rebound of Johnson's miss and called time out with 21 seconds remaining, at which time the upset seemed inevitable.
With four seconds left, Steve Goodrich hit a streaking Lewullis, who beat Charles O'Bannon for one of Carril's patented back-door layups, which all but turned the lights out on the Bruins' season.
"The first time I went back door on O'Bannon, he played me pretty well," Lewullis said, "so the second time I went out to the three-point line and came in."
UCLA would get one more chance, however, and if history was any indicator (read: Tyus Edney against Missouri) the defending national champs would find a way out of this one, too.
Dollar dribbled into the front court and Kris Johnson called timeout with 2.2 seconds remaining. The following inbound pass went to Bailey, who led UCLA with 13 points, but whose final shot missed everything.
"I was just looking for anybody who was open," Dollar said of the last hand-off. "Because of the angle of the defender, it was easiest to throw it to Toby. He's been known to come up with plays like that in the past, and you've gotta go out swinging and that's what we did."
The only bright side for the Bruins is that they return all five starters next year and, well, the last time they lost in the first-round, they followed up with a national title.
"It's over and done with; we're looking forward to next year," O'Bannon said. "We have everyone but one returning and we've got a lot of work ahead of us this summer."
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
Princeton's Sydney Johnson (left) was called for an intentional foul on Cameron Dollar with less than a minute to play, but Dollar was unable to convert either free throw.
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