UCLA Has Technical Difficulties : College basketball: A not-so-funny thing happens on the way to No. 1 as Ducks upset Bruins, 82-72. Harrick is ejected with 37 seconds to play.

EUGENE, Ore. â€”  Deja lose.

In a demeaning sequel to last year’s Pacific 10 Conference finale, UCLA was chased down, chewed up, tossed out, then trampled by Oregon and its tumultuous crowd Thursday night, 82-72.

It was an ugly loss and an uglier aftermath.

UCLA, the presumptive No 1. team in the nation heading into the game, did not leave the ranks of the unbeaten gracefully--or without being knocked around by the sellout Oregon crowd as hundreds stormed the court when the game ended.

“I guess they needed something to celebrate,� senior forward Ed O’Bannon said, angrily. “They didn’t win the Rose Bowl, so they needed something.�

For UCLA (6-1), which lost a chance at the conference co-championship here last year in a one-point defeat that was also followed by a mob scene on the court, the deepest indignities of this conference opener began to occur with less than a minute to play, well after Oregon had erased a 13-point second-half deficit.

“Sure, it’s frustrating coming back to the same locker room and the same crowd thing,� O’Bannon said. “It’s damn frustrating.�

Trailing, 75-71, with 37 seconds left, Bruin point guard Tyus Edney was called for a traveling violation when he careened into the lane and tried to pass to forward Charles O’Bannon.

Bruin Coach Jim Harrick, arguing that Edney had been fouled, started screaming at lead referee Steve Wilson and refused to sit down when Wilson asked.

About 15 seconds into Harrick’s explosion, Wilson hit him with a technical foul. Then, Harrick continued blasting Wilson as he walked to the scorer’s table and was given the second technical.

“I thought Edney made a nice pass,� Harrick said after the game. “I didn’t see the walk.�

Duck guard Orlando Williams made all four technical free throws, ending any UCLA hopes of victory.

When pressed if he thought his technical fouls cost his team a chance to win the game, Harrick was terse.

“The answer’s no,� Harrick said. “How many times are you going to ask me? Next question.�

Fifteen seconds after the technicals on Harrick, Oregon forward Darryl Parker was hit with a technical for taunting the Bruins after a dunk.

Then, when the game was over, several UCLA players said they were intentionally slammed and kicked when the tide of Oregon fans swept over them before they could get off the court.

“I couldn’t get out of there, and I took a couple of cheap shots from them,� Edney said of the huge scrum. “Yeah, I swung back some. I did what I had to do to get out of there. I felt people hitting me in the back.�

Said freshman guard Toby Bailey, who almost was knocked down in the middle of it: “It was kind of scary. I thought I was going to get trampled. I was trying to get out of there, and somebody pushed me real hard and I stumbled.�

They were pushed around during the game too.

Oregon (9-1) shot only 37.1% from the field but made up for it by gathering an amazing 25 offensive rebounds against UCLA, which came into the game the top rebounding team in the conference.

Apart from the second-chance buckets, Duck point guard Kenya Wilkins (16 points) was Oregon’s main weapon--especially with leading scorer Orlando Williams riding the bench in the first parts of both halves for disciplinary reasons.

UCLA built a 58-46 lead, with 13:59 to play on the shooting of Bailey (four of six, 10 points) and a second-half resurgence by center George Zidek, who scored eight points after being shut out in the first half.

But the Bruins turned the ball over 21 times--seven by Edney, who had unusual difficulties with the Oregon press.

Though they were poised to take over the top spot in the polls after No. 1 North Carolina’s loss Wednesday, the second-ranked Bruins said they were not affected by the responsibilities of their ranking.

“We didn’t care anything about No. 1,� Ed O’Bannon said. “Last year, it meant something. This year, it didn’t. No. 1 is at the end. I ain’t worried about any No. 1.

“We just didn’t play hard, didn’t crash, didn’t do nothing. Both (Oregon losses) we’ve played like a high school team.�

O’Bannon said that although he still believed UCLA could win the game at the point where Harrick drew the technicals, Harrick was not to blame for the loss.

“The technicals didn’t do anything,� O’Bannon said. “We should’ve been up by 30 by that point.�

For Oregon, it was the biggest victory since Nov. 30, 1989, when the Ducks beat No. 2 Arizona, and the victory gave Oregon back-to-back victories over the Bruins for the first time since the 1983-84 season.

“The technicals didn’t make a bit of difference,� Oregon forward Jeff Potter said, “because we had that team beat. There isn’t any better feeling.�

* PACIFIC 10

No. 15 Arizona State sinks No. 9 Arizona, 53-52, in the conference opener for both schools. C4

* EYEING NO. 1

No. 4 Massachusetts defeats St. Louis, and after watching the three teams ranked ahead of it lose this week, sets its sights on a No. 1 ranking. C4