KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Sophomore Salim Stoudamire blocks UCLA senior Jason Kapono's shot. Kapono scored 26 points in the Bruins' upset win yesterday.

Poor outside shooting ruins UA's bid for Pac-10 repeat, keeps UCLA's season alive

LOS ANGELES ÷ The Wildcats and Bruins both entered the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament playing possibly their best basketball of the season.

The only difference was what the teams were playing for.

No. 1 Arizona (25-3 overall, 17-1 Pac-10) has all but assured itself a top seed in the NCAA tournament and played to repeat as champions of a tournament their head coach opposes.

UCLA (10-18, 6-12) was playing for its life.

It showed.

With UCLA head coach Steve Lavin possibly coaching his last game and the team with its back against the wall, the Bruins rallied for maybe the last time and came out and "shocked the world" by defeating the top ranked Wildcats 96-89 in overtime.

"Obviously we're disappointed," UA head coach Lute Olson said." UCLA played a great game and you have to give them credit. They played a flawless second half."

The Wildcats defeated the Bruins by a combined 71 points in the teams' first two meetings, but that didn't intimidate UCLA.

"I am so proud of our team," Lavin said. "I kept telling them to keep working and eventually they would have a chance to do something special. They kept playing hard and we have a chance to really do something special this weekend."

The win was the 10th time the Bruins have upset a No. 1 team, the most upsets by any team in history.

The Bruins stayed close in the first half, but Arizona broke the game open with a 17-4 run to begin the second half.

Throughout the season, UCLA has managed to play tough against ranked opponents for one half and then they have crumbled.

It looked as though that was going to be the case once again.

With Arizona holding on to a commanding 60-45 lead, it looked as though the Bruins were dead in the water.

However, the Bruins rode the back of seniors Ray Young and Jason Kapono and little by little they began to chip into the Wildcats' 15 point lead.

"You can't do anything if you can't make your shots," Arizona freshman Hassan Adams said.

Kapono finished with a game-high 26 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists helping the Bruins cut the UA lead to 78-77 with 2:15 remaining.

Then with 34.9 seconds remaining, the Bruins had the ball trailing 80-79.

Lavin set up a play to isolate Kapono on the low block, but the senior was unable to make a fade away in the lane over sophomore Salim Stoudamire.

After two free throws by Stoudamire öö who wore a brace on his knee due to tendonitis öö UCLA faced a three-point deficit with 11 seconds remaining.

With the clock winding down, Young took the ball and hit a deep three pointer over the outstretched arms of Channing Frye to tie the game at 82 with 4.9 seconds remaining.

"I have been on a roll lately," Young said. "When coach was drawing up the play, I knew in the back of my mind that if I got the ball that it was going up. There was no question. With the game on the line I wanted the ball and I shot it with confidence."

Arizona came out of the timeout and Jason Gardner took the ball the length of the floor and missed a heavily contested layup as time expired.

With all of the momentum with UCLA, the Bruins came out and dominated the overtime period.

Arizona's cold shooting from the outside turned frigid in the extra frame, and the Wildcats were unable to overcome it.

The Wildcats finished the game 7-36 from behind the arc, including an 0-12 3-point performance from Gardner.

Gardner finished the game 2-of-20 from the field.

Even with the Wildcats and Gardner struggling, they still had a chance to win in overtime.

The Wildcats struggled immensely from the perimeter, but Rick Anderson and Frye played well inside.

Anderson finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds and Frye added 19 points and nine rebounds.

"I told our team that in 1997, we lost our last two games before the tournament and then we went on to win the national championship," Olson said. "People forgot about those two losses quickly. We have to go home and regroup and be ready to play wherever they send us."

Game Notes

Redshirt freshman Chris Dunn did not travel with the team because of an exam, but caught an afternoon flight Thursday to Los Angeles to be with the team. Dunn found out the final score just prior to take off.

The Wildcats went back to Tucson after the game and take two days before returning to practice on Sunday.

The Staples Center crowd was in favor of the hometown team even with a large showing of UA fans in the arena.

The Wildcats now await "Selection Sunday" to see where they will be seeded in NCAA Tournament.