Sizable Victory Picks Up Bruins

By SAM FARMER

Jan. 26, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Far be it from UCLA to look down on another basketball team. But against Oregon State--one of the shortest teams in the country--the Bruins had no other choice.

The Bruins relied on their size advantage and solid half-court defense to post a 67-40 victory over a scrappy Oregon State team blessed with more heart than height. For most of the second half, the tallest Beaver player on the Pauley Pavilion court was 6-foot-5 guard Adam Matsen.

That made UCLA’s cast--which included 6-10 Dan Gadzuric, 6-7 Jason Kapono and 6-7 Matt Barnes--look gigantic. Eventually, the size advantage paid off and the Bruins pulled away for their ninth victory in 11 games.

“Because they were so much smaller, we decided to pack it in, make them shoot threes and get all the rebounds,” Barnes said. “That’s what the game plan was tonight, and it was pretty effective.”

UCLA, led by Kapono with 19 points, improved to 11-5 overall, 5-1 in Pacific 10 Conference play. Oregon State, which has not won a road game since November and has gone 13 years without a victory at Pauley, dropped to 8-10 and 2-4.

The victory was a much-needed morale booster for the Bruins, who were reeling in the wake of a 25-point loss to Arizona and a turbulent week for embattled Coach Steve Lavin.

“This gave us motivation, definitely,” point guard Earl Watson said. “We needed something to get us back on track.”

The game also marked another comeback for Watson, who missed a lot of practice time this week because of lower-back pain and considered sitting out the game. He said he made the decision to play about 1 1/2 hours before tip-off, thereby running his streak of consecutive starts to 113.

Watson opted to play after talking to assistant coach Michael Holton, who had back surgery during his playing days.

“He explained to me how it feels to have a slipped disk, because basically that was my main concern,” Watson said. “I was afraid I might have had one. But he told me it was more constant pain, and I don’t have that. He just told me to go out and play like a veteran.”

And Watson did, turning in a zero-turnover, five-assist performance that began when he gathered a loose ball on the opening tip and tossed a perfectly placed alley-oop pass to Barnes for a dunk.

Watson later found Gadzuric with similar passes, leading to jams that left the basket swaying and the crowd of 6,208 on its feet.

Perhaps the most impressive play by Gadzuric--who scored in double figures (14) for the first time since a conference opener against Washington--was when he got in the face of an Oregon State guard well outside the three-point arc and forced a five-second call.

“That was kind of symbolic of what we got accomplished on defense tonight,” Holton said. “Any team that can shoot the three and spread you out presents problems. In the first half they did a better job of getting in the gaps and kicking it out. That was something that we needed to play against, because it was something that had been a problem for us--teams putting the ball on the floor and breaking our defense down.”

The Beavers made a game of it for the first 15 minutes, knocking down a handful of three-pointers and slowing the pace. Eventually, though, the shots stopped falling. In the end, the numbers were ugly, with the visitors shooting 17.9% from three-point range (5 of 28).

“Because of our lack of inside presence, we had to shoot threes,” Oregon State Coach Ritchie McKay said. “But we didn’t make our shots. I think you have to play a perfect game. After you break the press two or three times, you have to continue to execute.”

That wasn’t a problem for Kapono, who was coming off a season-low four points against Arizona. He relocated his shooting touch and made six of nine shots, including five of six from three-point range.

The Bruins outrebounded Oregon State, 38-29, making it the 11th time in 14 games that UCLA has won the battle of the boards.

“There were a lot of good things tonight, particularly in our players’ maturity in playing a grinding game,” Lavin said.

“Last year, this would have been a game that came down to the last two minutes. Tonight, we were able to put them away.”

More important, the victory helped some of the Bruins wash away the week and the memory of a humiliating loss in the desert.

“This was big,” Barnes said. “As a team, we felt we really defeated ourselves against Arizona. There wasn’t anything big they did to us. Winning tonight really helps.”

GEORGETOWN

ROLLS, 79-62

The Hoyas simply had too much firepower for Nevada Las Vegas. D6

ROAD WIN FOR

NORTHRIDGE

The Matadors end Montana State’s home winning streak. D6

NO. 1 STANFORD

STILL PERFECT

The Cardinal improved to 18-0 with a 94-63 crushing of Washington. D7

BIG WIN FOR

USC WOMEN

Trojans rally in the second half and defeat