UCLA Breaks Away to Stop Washington St.

It didn’t have to be a work of art. It didn’t have to be exciting. It was a victory--a Pacific 10 victory--and UCLA has precious few of those this season. Four to be exact.

The 88-63 win over Washington State before 6,583 fans at Pauley Pavilion Thursday night evened the Bruins’ Pac-10 record at 4-4. UCLA and Washington State are tied for fourth place in the conference behind Arizona, Arizona State and Stanford.

The Bruins’ overall record is 8-10.

From UCLA’s perspective, which turned the second half into garbage time, most of the first half was just plain garbage.

Well, maybe from where Washington State Coach Kelvin Sampson sat, it was just plain perfection in the first half.

The Cougars (7-8) have won more than their share of games this season by playing a slowed-down, controlled game and just plain making a mess of the other team’s game plan. The Cougars did that beautifully in the first half. After six minutes of play and countless cringes over missed shots, missed rebounds and missed passes, Washington State led, 6-2.

Washington State was still up, 31-26, after Brian Wright’s three-pointer with 1:03 left in the first half. But UCLA’s Kevin Walker answered with a quick three-pointer of his own and stole the next pass the Cougars tried to get inside so that Dave Immel could score on a 12-footer. When a foul on Cougar center Todd Anderson put Walker on the free-throw line for a one-and-one with four seconds to play, UCLA went ahead, 33-31.

In the second half, the Bruins countered with an aggressive, pressure defense that netted the turnovers that started their running game. They also began hitting their shots, including their first 11 in a row. They ended up shooting 65.5% in the second half, compared with 41.9% in the first half.

Asked if he would rather not run with a team like the Bruins, Sampson answered, “Sir, we would rather not run with ourselves.”

When Sampson called time out to try to regroup with 12:54 remaining in the game, UCLA was leading, 58-44.

Bruin point guard Pooh Richardson had 2 of his 3 steals, 3 of his 7 assists and 6 of his 11 points in that stretch at the start of the second half.

UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard said: “Pooh played excellent basketball in the second half. It was probably his best half this year.

“We played well in the second half. We hit our first 11 shots. The adjustments we made on the pressure were effective. The intensity was good . . .

“Washington State is well-coached in their style of play. They want to play a slow tempo, and that’s what happened to us in the first half. When we increased the pressure on their backcourt and forced some turnovers, we got the game into our kind of rhythm and our kind of pace.”

UCLA’s lead improved to 73-46 when a three-point play by Richardson with 8:53 left capped a 12-point run.

That streak started when Booker Turner hit Sampson with two quick technical fouls and Immel sank four free throws. The Bruins used the automatic possession to get a three-point basket from reserve guard Gerald Madkins--and it was a seven-point possession.

Sampson did not want to comment specifically on what had made him angry enough to get successive technicals, but he did say that it was a culmination of things, and that if he had to do it again, he’d do it again.

Richardson later gave the game a moment of comic relief. After being called for charging as he drove the lane, Richardson dramatically ran over to his coach to show him how innocent he had been and, in demonstrating the play, bumped the coach’s chest with his chest hard enough to knock him off balance.

By that time, the game was gone, and the fans needed something to watch.

The Bruins, who had picked up 22 of their 33 first-half points by reserves, ended with the scoring evenly distributed.

They were led by Immel, who had 17. Madkins scored a career-high 15 points. Forward Trevor Wilson had 14 points and 9 rebounds. Walker came off the bench to get 13 points. Richardson had 11 points and 7 assists.

“They’ve got too much talent to lose the games they’ve lost this season,” Sampson said.”You have to give Walt credit for keeping them together. They’ve had some tough, close losses. Then they lose a player. Some teams would have cracked and folded.

“Walt has kept them together.”