University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA
UC Santa Barbara
Men's Basketball Survives Scare From Gauchos
November 29, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2000
By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Earl Watson and Matt Barnes, who both failed to score in the first half, keyed a critical 11-4 run late in the game as UCLA held off UC Santa Barbara 83-77 Wednesday night.
The Bruins (2-2) narrowly avoided being upset for the second straight week after falling out of the Top 25 following a stunning 78-74 loss to Cal State Northridge at Pauley Pavilion last week.
Mark Hull scored a career-high 23 points for the Gauchos (0-4), who hit 12 3-pointers and remained winless against UCLA in 18 meetings.
Jason Kapono led UCLA with 24 points, while Dan Gadzuric scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half before fouling out with 2:13 remaining.
Trailing 64-63, UCLA scored nine of the next 11 points to go up 72-66 with 5:47 remaining. T.J. Cummings scored, Watson hit a 3-pointer and followed with two free throws. The Bruins converted a critical second-chance basket when Cummings rebounded a miss by Ray Young and Watson fed Barnes for a slam dunk that ended the spurt.
Barnes had eight points 10 rebounds as the Bruins dominated the boards 40-28 but shot 43.8 percent.
The Bruins stumbled during the next couple of minutes with missed shots, a shot-clock violation and a lost possession on a held ball, but Santa Barbara managed just two of four free throws in that span and never threatened again.
Neither team led by more than four points for much of the second half, and twice the Gauchos had the Bruins down by that margin.
UCLA recovered by scoring seven consecutive points in typically flashy style, capped by a three-point play from Young. He tossed up a one-hander with his back to the basket as he was falling out of bounds after being fouled by Jacoby Atako.
Young made the free throw to give UCLA a 63-60 lead that promptly disappeared when LaRon Bryant answered with Santa Barbara's 10th 3-pointer to tie the game.
The Gauchos went from trailing by 11 points to leading by three at halftime when they outscored UCLA 32-17 over the final 12:18. They hit all six of their first-half 3-pointers in that stretch, including three straight by Hull.
The Bruins got only two free throws over the final three minutes of the half, which ended when Watson, who finished with eight points, sent a pass backward through his legs to Kapono, who missed a 3-pointer and slapped the floor in frustration.
