Loss leaves foul taste in Bruin mouths

Monday, February 1, 1999

MBASKETBALL: Benching Davis, Lavin for behavior frustrates struggling team

By David Arnold

Daily Bruin Contributor

It was not a pretty scene.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Bruins were forced to watch Washington score on several runaway dunks before falling, 93-83, to the extreme delight of the sold-out crowd at "Hec" Edmundson Pavilion.

With 4:34 left in the game and facing a seven-point deficit against the University of Washington, Baron Davis picked up his fifth personal foul.

In frustration, he slammed his mouthpiece to the ground and drew a technical foul.

Then Bruin coach Steve Lavin blew up.

Hollering and screaming his way off the bench, Lavin protested the technical foul with a ferocity that was met with two more technicals for him, and an ejection from the game.

"He just went off," said freshman JaRon Rush. "I've never seen him like that."

After the excitement was over, it got even uglier.

Husky guard Deon Luton proceeded to hit on five of the eight foul shots he was awarded by the referees.

"I've never received a technical before," said Lavin after the game.

"As a coach, you always want to set a good example to the players. So, yes, I had to apologize."

Lavin explained his outburst as the result of a building frustration with the officiating the Bruins have faced in recent weeks.

"It was the culmination of a four-game pattern," Lavin went on, in reference to games such as those against Stanford and USC, in which UCLA committed 35 and 33 fouls, respectively, before tonight, where they fouled 31 times.

"It is one of those strange, twilight zone kind of statistics, one of the weirdest stats I've seen since second grade," said Lavin.

But to the Huskies' credit, they were already in the lead by the time the mouthpiece hit the ground and looked almost as in control of the game as they were in control of the paint.

Senior center Todd MacCulloch led Washington in scoring with 26 points and had 21 rebounds. In fact, MacCulloch had more rebounds as an individual than UCLA did as a team.

He never lost control, not picking up his first foul until three minutes into the second half, a minute after Bruin center Dan Gadzuric had picked up his fourth.

"We got out-competed - that's the main thing," said Lavin. "We were fortunate to get a split up here. We could've got swept."

To the Bruins' credit, they kept on fighting even when their coach was sitting in the locker room and their star point guard was doing likewise on the bench.

"They continued to play on and compete just like they should have," said assistant Bruin coach Michael Holton, who had to take over coaching responsibilities at the end of the game.

Did they still think they could win? "Definitely," said junior Sean Farnham.

"Yeah, of course," said Rush, "We didn't give up."

"We're 13 out of our last 16, and we feel awful," said Lavin, "But if you'd told me we would be at this point at the beginning of the season, I would've said we were ahead of schedule."

Even though the last five minutes saw no Davis, the first half was all about No. 5. He had 16 points, three rebounds, and three steals and finished with 20 points and five assists.

Fellow sophomore guard Earl Watson had 24 points while making seven turnovers. Jerome Moiso had 20, while Gadzuric (who had six points in only six minutes of first-half play) scored 12 in 18 overall.

For the Huskies, Senque Carey counted out eight assists and 14 points, and Deon Luton had 21 points in helping Washington overcome a eight-point halftime deficit to win by 10.

DERRICK KUDO

Baron Davis shoots for two against Washington's forward Thalo Green in Sunday's away game.

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