Weaker Teams Enable UCLA to Look Strong

Staggering a week ago under the weight of its longest losing streak in 42 years, UCLA found an elixir on the final weekend of the regular season in visits from Washington State and Washington.

The Bruins completed a sweep of the Pacific 10 Conference’s worst teams by beating Washington, 74-61, Sunday before 8,166 fans at Pauley Pavilion.

“If we’d been in a five-game slump and had to play the Arizonas, we’d have been in for it,” UCLA forward Don MacLean said.

The schedule, though, was kind to the Bruins, who ended the regular season with an 18-9 record and finished fourth in the Pac-10 at 11-7. They’ll play Oregon (15-12) Friday at Tempe, Ariz., in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament.

Washington (11-16, 5-13) won only once in 11 games on the road--at Washington State last weekend.

Washington State (7-21) failed to win any of its 11 road games.

His weekend visitors’ lack of success notwithstanding, though, UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said that he liked what he saw from the Bruins.

“We did things a lot better than we had been doing them over the last few weeks,” Harrick said of the Bruins, who made only 42.4% of their shots but overcame that by limiting Washington to 41.3% shooting while outrebounding the Huskies, 40-36. “I thought our defense was excellent.”

It certainly was improved.

UCLA’s previous five opponents made 55.1% of their shots. Washington State, the Pac-10’s worst shooting team, made 58.1% of its shots against UCLA after making only 38.9% in its previous 16 conference games.

“We won on Thursday (over Washington State) and our defense was horrible,” MacLean said, “so we figured if we played good defense, we’d be able to take care of Washington.”

They did, opening a 6-0 lead and never losing it. Washington’s first 10 possessions ended in five turnovers, four missed shots and a dunk.

“I was disappointed that we didn’t play better,” Washington Coach Lynn Nance said. “In the first part of the game, we were very tense. I would assume that (network) television had something to do with that, but we’ve been on (ESPN) an awful lot this year. We made some pretty bad decisions.”

Said Harrick: “Our defense keyed everything. That’s kind of the way we played early in the year. We’ve been working hard to get that back. Once that gets back, it keys almost everything we do.

“That was a good defensive effort, a very good effort.”

Offensively, the Bruins were led by MacLean, who made six of 10 shots and scored 19 points. Darrick Martin had 14 points and six assists and Tracy Murray, brought off the bench so that senior Kevin Walker could start in his final game in Pauley Pavilion, scored 12 points in 20 minutes.

Trevor Wilson, limited to a season-low seven points against Washington State, scored 13 points and had 15 rebounds. Wilson, bothered by a sprained wrist since Feb. 1, has 38 rebounds in UCLA’s last three games.

“Wilson’s back playing almost 100 (per cent),” Harrick said. “You see by his rebounds. And his touch is coming back slowly.”

Maybe too slowly.

He made five of 13 shots and three of seven free throws.

All-conference guard Eldridge Recasner led Washington with 13 points, but made only six of 20 shots against the defense of Gerald Madkins. Mark West had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Huskies and reserve center Todd Lautenbach scored 10 points, making four of seven shots.

“All in all, I thought we played well--much better than we had been playing,” Harrick said. “It’s really nice to get these two wins to help put us back to where we need to be.”

That, of course, would be in the NCAA tournament.

Will the Bruins make it?

“It would be a travesty if they don’t,” Nance said. “To ask if they’re one of the top 64 teams in the country--that’s preposterous. Certainly, they’re one of the top 64 and a lot farther up than 64th, too.”

At times in the last few weeks, they looked like anything but.

“They’re a team whose confidence has been shaken a little bit with what they’ve gone through,” Nance said. “They’re trying to regain that, but it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a little time.”

The Bruins’ weekend visitors helped hasten the process.

Bruin Notes

UCLA was 4-6 against the Pac-10’s top six teams, 7-1 against the bottom four, 13-2 at home, 5-7 on the road. . . . UCLA’s Darrin Dafney was released from the UCLA Medical Center after tests revealed that he had a bleeding ulcer, but he has not been cleared to practice.

First-round and quarterfinal pairings for the Pac-10 tournament at Tempe, Ariz.: Thursday--No. 8 Arizona State vs. No. 9 Washington, 6 p.m. PST; No. 7 USC vs. No. 10 Washington State, 8 p.m.; Friday--No. 4 UCLA vs. No. 5 Oregon, 1 p.m. PST; No. 1 Oregon State vs. Arizona State-Washington winner, 3 p.m.; No. 2 Arizona vs. USC-Washington State winner, 7 p.m.; No. 3 California vs. No. 6 Stanford, 9 p.m. The semifinals will be played Saturday and the final will be played on Sunday. . . Before UCLA lost to Oregon, 105-99, two weeks ago at Eugene, Ore., the Bruins had never given up as many points to a conference opponent in regulation time.