Monday, February 1, 1999
Loss leaves foul taste in Bruin mouths
MBASKETBALL: Benching Davis, Lavin for behavior frustrates
struggling team
By David Arnold
Daily Bruin Contributor
It was not a pretty scene.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Bruins were
forced to watch Washington score on several runaway dunks before
falling, 93-83, to the extreme delight of the sold-out crowd at
"Hec" Edmundson Pavilion.
With 4:34 left in the game and facing a seven-point deficit
against the University of Washington, Baron Davis picked up his
fifth personal foul.
In frustration, he slammed his mouthpiece to the ground and drew
a technical foul.
Then Bruin coach Steve Lavin blew up.
Hollering and screaming his way off the bench, Lavin protested
the technical foul with a ferocity that was met with two more
technicals for him, and an ejection from the game.
"He just went off," said freshman JaRon Rush. "I’ve never seen
him like that."
After the excitement was over, it got even uglier.
Husky guard Deon Luton proceeded to hit on five of the eight
foul shots he was awarded by the referees.
"I’ve never received a technical before," said Lavin after the
game.
"As a coach, you always want to set a good example to the
players. So, yes, I had to apologize."
Lavin explained his outburst as the result of a building
frustration with the officiating the Bruins have faced in recent
weeks.
"It was the culmination of a four-game pattern," Lavin went on,
in reference to games such as those against Stanford and USC, in
which UCLA committed 35 and 33 fouls, respectively, before tonight,
where they fouled 31 times.
"It is one of those strange, twilight zone kind of statistics,
one of the weirdest stats I’ve seen since second grade," said
Lavin.
But to the Huskies’ credit, they were already in the lead by the
time the mouthpiece hit the ground and looked almost as in control
of the game as they were in control of the paint.
Senior center Todd MacCulloch led Washington in scoring with 26
points and had 21 rebounds. In fact, MacCulloch had more rebounds
as an individual than UCLA did as a team.
He never lost control, not picking up his first foul until three
minutes into the second half, a minute after Bruin center Dan
Gadzuric had picked up his fourth.
"We got out-competed – that’s the main thing," said Lavin. "We
were fortunate to get a split up here. We could’ve got swept."
To the Bruins’ credit, they kept on fighting even when their
coach was sitting in the locker room and their star point guard was
doing likewise on the bench.
"They continued to play on and compete just like they should
have," said assistant Bruin coach Michael Holton, who had to take
over coaching responsibilities at the end of the game.
Did they still think they could win? "Definitely," said junior
Sean Farnham.
"Yeah, of course," said Rush, "We didn’t give up."
"We’re 13 out of our last 16, and we feel awful," said Lavin,
"But if you’d told me we would be at this point at the beginning of
the season, I would’ve said we were ahead of schedule."
Even though the last five minutes saw no Davis, the first half
was all about No. 5. He had 16 points, three rebounds, and three
steals and finished with 20 points and five assists.
Fellow sophomore guard Earl Watson had 24 points while making
seven turnovers. Jerome Moiso had 20, while Gadzuric (who had six
points in only six minutes of first-half play) scored 12 in 18
overall.
For the Huskies, Senque Carey counted out eight assists and 14
points, and Deon Luton had 21 points in helping Washington overcome
a eight-point halftime deficit to win by 10.
DERRICK KUDO
Baron Davis shoots for two against Washington’s forward Thalo
Green in Sunday’s away game.
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