Friday, March 6, 1998
Seniors burn Devils, await ‘Cats
M.BASKETBALL: Trio takes turns in limelight, looks forward to
Arizona
By Brent Boyd
Daily Bruin Staff
It was only fitting that the final home stand of the collegiate
careers of the three Bruin seniors would commence with the Bruin
trio dominating the game from beginning to end, ultimately leading
the Bruins to victory.
At first, J.R. Henderson was the go-to guy, then Kris Johnson
took over, and finally Toby Bailey put the finishing touches on the
102-94 victory over Arizona State in front of 10,290 at Pauley
Pavilion Thursday night.
"Before one guy was on, maybe two," Johnson said. "It’s never
been all three guys just on. The seniors are just clicking and I’m
glad to see that we are doing that right now at the right time,
hitting our stride."
The Bruins clinched third place in the Pac-10 and improved their
hopes for a favorable seeding in next week’s NCAA Tournament by
raising their record to 12-5 in conference play, and 22-7 overall,
and at the same time, dealt a lethal blow to the tourney hopes of
Arizona State (18-12, 8-9), who most likely needed a sweep of UCLA
and USC to earn a berth.
The storyline was set early on, when the Sun Devils could not
contain Henderson. By halftime, the senior forward already had a
double-double, with 17 points and 12 rebounds. He finished with 25
points and 16 boards.
"They don’t have too many guys that could come down and guard
(Henderson)," Johnson said. "Our game plan was just to go down to
him and keep it down low, keep pounding them and get their guys in
foul trouble – eventually it paid off for us."
In fact, ASU’s two starting forwards fouled out in the game’s
final moments.
But once halftime rolled around with UCLA leading 47-37, the
Bruins jumped off Henderson’s back and took a ride on
Johnson’s.
Johnson hit a three-pointer 16 seconds into the second half and
never looked back. He scored 12 points over the first six minutes,
which helped UCLA build its largest lead of the game, 71-56.
He finished with a game-high 33 points – 23 of which came in the
second half. In addition, he made eight of nine free throws,
including six of seven over the final four minutes to help seal the
Bruin victory.
"When our backs are against the wall, me and (Johnson) love that
situation," Henderson said. "We feel that we can score in any type
of situation, the same thing with (Bailey), but it just happened to
be me and (Johnson) down low."
Although Bailey didn’t dominate a large portion of the game like
the other two did – or like he did last week against Washington –
he certainly had a key impact, and ultimately clinched the
victory.
ASU threatened the Bruin lead when it cut the deficit to 92-89,
with under a minute remaining, but that’s when Bailey turned it
on.
After being fouled on a made bank shot, Bailey converted the
free throw to give the Bruins a six-point lead with 53 seconds
remaining. On the Sun Devils’ next possession he made a huge
rebound, then made one of two free throws after he was fouled
again.
Finally a tomahawk slam dunk followed by an assist to Johnson on
his dunk slammed the door on the Sun Devils.
"(Henderson) was real hot, so was (Johnson) and I just had to
wait my turn," said Bailey, who finished with 22 points and eight
rebounds. "I can’t remember a time when all of us played as good as
tonight."
But the Bruin trio knows that if they are to have any shot at
upsetting second-ranked Arizona (27-4, 17-1) Saturday, they will
need to play just as well.
Although Arizona was upset by USC Thursday night – ruining the
Wildcats’ chances of becoming the first Pac-10 team ever to go
through the conference season undefeated – they remain one of the
most explosive and talented teams in the nation.
They were on a 19-game winning streak with their previous losses
coming to top-ranked Duke, No. 3 Kansas and Florida State.
This game takes on added importance for the Bruin seniors since
it will be their final game in Pauley.
"This game will be the most exciting of our career other than
the NCAA championship game, just because it’s Arizona," Johnson
said. "It’s our last game, and we’ve had an intense rivalry through
the years with them and they’re trying to come into our house on
our last game.
"And from an emotional standpoint I think the three seniors are
just going to step up and play the game of our lives. And Miles
(Simon) is talking trash."
Oh yeah, that.
In a series where neither team needs extra motivation to get
fired up for its arch-rival, Arizona’s star guard has given the
Bruins a little bulletin board material.
When Simon thought the Wildcats would come into Westwood
undefeated in the conference, he said he was planning on partying
on the floor with his buddies for a couple of hours.
"That bulletin board stuff is what got us all excited,"Johnson
said.
No matter how excited they are, though, Johnson and the rest of
the Bruins know they need to do one thing to beat Arizona.
"We need to play our butts off."
Thursday was a good start.
Emmanuelle Ejercito, Daily Bruin Senior Staff, contributed to
this report.GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Kris Johnson scored 23 of his game-high 33 points in the second
half to lead the Bruins to a victory over Arizona State,
102-94.