Harrick’s Motivational Tool Gets UCLA in Gear, 74-66 : College basketball: Bruins make stop at Kingdome, site of Final Four, then defeat Washington.

None too subtle but effective for at least a half, UCLA Coach Jim Harrick took the Bruins on a quick, unscheduled detour to nirvana Thursday afternoon.

Hours before the Bruins’ 74-66 victory over Washington on Thursday night, on the way back from the team’s afternoon shoot-around, the team bus pulled up to the Kingdome, site of this year’s Final Four in April and currently host for an RV show.

“Just trying to put a little picture in their mind, you know?” said assistant coach Lorenzo Romar. “I think they enjoyed it.”

Said forward Charles O’Bannon: “I just imagined us coming back in seven weeks. Whatever message he was trying to send us, it registered. I got a taste of it, now I want the whole thing.”

With visions of a Final Four future dancing in their heads, the Bruins, 15-2 overall and tied for first with Arizona at 8-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference, opened up like an elite team. They bustled out to a 15-point halftime lead over the injury- and suspension-drained Huskies (5-13, 1-9).

But, with the Huskies outhustling them throughout the second half, the Bruins played like a decidedly second-tier ballclub for long stretches, and needed clutch baskets in the final minutes from center George Zidek and forward Ed O’Bannon to hold on before 7,119 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

Washington, which has lost five in a row, was playing its first game without starting point guard Michael McClain, who has been suspended for the rest of the season after being arrested for assault.

Freshman swingman J.R. Henderson dominated play in the first part of the game--at one point, he scored 10 consecutive points to increase the Bruin lead from 22-21 to 32-21--and UCLA looked as if it would go right through Washington.

The Bruins’ three-quarter court trap forced 10 first-half Husky turnovers, led to several easy baskets, and held Washington to 29% field-goal shooting in the half.

But point guard Tyus Edney continued to struggle throughout the game (he had as many turnovers, three, as points, in the game), and Washington controlled almost everything inside, outrebounding UCLA, 50-34, on the game, and by 26-7 on the offensive glass.

“Whew, it sure wasn’t one of his better games,” Harrick said of Edney, making his second appearance since missing a game with flu. “Maybe the flu had a bigger effect than we all think it did. Every time I saw him shoot, he was hesitating.”

Edney made only one of his six attempts, and only one of five free throws.

“Maybe it’s just a matter of me trying to get back in the swing of things,” Edney said. “But we still pulled it out. We got outplayed in the second half, but we did a good job of keeping the lead and getting a win.”

After building a 17-point lead early in the second, UCLA saw its lead sliced and diced until Washington trailed by only three, 61-58, with 8:31 left to play. Guard Bryant Boston led the Huskies with 18 points--13 in the second half--and Henderson was a non-factor in the second, scoring only two of his 16 in that segment.

But UCLA outscored Washington, 8-4, in the next few minutes, getting key baskets from Ed O’Bannon and Zidek, who shared the team lead with 17 points apiece.

“You’ve got to make them (pay) for single-covering me, no doubt,” said the 7-foot Zidek, who, guarded by nobody taller than 6-9, missed only two of his 10 shots.

The Bruins also got a crucial blocked shot from forward Charles O’Bannon, who set a season team high with five blocked shots on the night.

“I don’t like to say this, but you’ve got to find a way to win sometimes, and tonight we found a way to win,” Harrick said. “It wasn’t pretty, and in the second half they just outplayed us in every phase of the game.

“We just had enough to hang on and win.”

Said Charles O’Bannon, who recognized that UCLA has struggled in at least one half of every game since its sweep of the Arizona schools last month: “You’re going to have some great days of basketball and you’re going to have some not-so-great days. We haven’t put together two good halves in a little while now. But I’m confident that we will.”

The Bruins said they know they had better, or else that side trip to the Kingdome will be their only visit there in 1995.

“It’s my dream,” Zidek said, “to get back there.”

*

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