Turner, Illinois Give Bruins a Fight to Finish

Jelani McCoy returned, but Kevin Turner showed up too, and by a whisker and a heartbeat, UCLA survived Illinois’ second-half shock wave Tuesday night.

In a game that was supposed to be about celebrating the return of McCoy from a nine-game suspension, the Bruins lost a 17-point second-half lead, lost a bit of composure and almost lost the game before squeezing out a 74-69 victory in front 12,055 at Pauley Pavilion.

Making fall-away three-pointers and spinning in shorter shots, Illini guard Turner scored a career-high 32 points--19 in the second half--and came within a shot of single-handedly delivering what would have been one of UCLA’s most disappointing home defeats in years.

“Tonight, there was no good chemistry on the floor,” said UCLA Coach Steve Lavin, who kept the locker room closed an extra 10 minutes after the game and has a major matchup against Arizona in the Pacific 10 Conference opener Saturday.

“We’ll take some lumps early [in conference play], but I think by mid-February we can be a pretty dangerous team, just like last year.”

With the game on the line, Toby Bailey locked onto his hip and the rest of the UCLA defense desperately denying him a clean look at the hoop, Turner missed all four of his shots in the last two minutes.

In desperation, down by three, Turner barely missed a wild, 30-footer that caromed off the backboard onto the front of the rim and off with fewer than 10 seconds left.

“I saw him lighting people up and everything, but you don’t really know how hot he’s going until you step up to him and he hits one in your face,” said Bailey, who was assigned to Turner midway through the second period, after Baron Davis and Earl Watson had taken turns on him.

Turner made 12 of 25 shots and was eight for 13 from three-point distance. His eight three-pointers tied a Pauley Pavilion record.

“After he did that to me once, I said, ‘OK, this guy’s in a zone, I have to do everything I can to stop him,’ ” Bailey said. “What I tried to do was stay big on him--I’m taller than he is or the other guys who were guarding him.

“I caught a little of his hot streak, but I was able to stop the shots at the end, when it counted.”

After Illinois took a 67-65 lead, Bailey, Davis and J.R. Henderson combined to score UCLA’s last nine points on free throws in the last 3:22 to give the ninth-ranked Bruins the winning margin.

Henderson led UCLA with 22 points and nine rebounds. Bailey had 18 points, five assists and four rebounds, playing all 40 minutes for the fourth consecutive game.

With the offense stagnant and struggling against the defensive pressure of Illini guards Sergio McClain and Awvee Storey, the Bruins depended on Davis’ penetrating skills in the late moments.

The first half belonged to the Bruins and McCoy, who entered the game with 11:08 left in the first half to a resounding ovation, almost immediately threw down two thunderous slams and smacked an Illini layup try about 80 feet backward.

“That’s how I hoped it was going to be,” said McCoy, who finished with seven points and three rebounds in only 14 minutes. “I felt real good that my first one was a dunk.”

Lavin said before the game he expected McCoy to play at least 25 minutes, but McCoy was on the bench for the crucial minutes.

UCLA (9-1, nine consecutive victories) took a 50-33 lead five minutes into the second half before things bogged down. Turner, who had 30 of Illinois’ first 66 points, kept pouring it in and UCLA’s offense struggled against Illinois’ zone.

The Illini (8-5), who handed UCLA one of its most frustrating defeats last season, used a 33-13 run to pull ahead, 66-63, with 4:37 left.

“I think in the first half we were just looking around waiting for somebody to start making some shots,” Illini Coach Lon Kruger said. “When Kevin started scoring, that freed up everything else.”

Illinois made only 10 of 31 first-half shots, and would have been down by more than a dozen if not for a late-period spree by Turner, who scored the Illini’s last 13 points of the half.

“This just helps us realize that we don’t have to panic when we lose a lead, that we can handle it and step up in the end,” Bailey said.

Said Lavin: “We’re learning some valuable lessons but still managing to win ballgames. We have many things we need to work on, and it’ll come through experience.”