By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It was almost 11 months ago that UCLA got its revenge.
It started two days prior to the team’s showdown with No.
1 Stanford, who had beaten them by 48 in 1997’s
“Massacre at Maples.”
In Berkeley, Bruin critics saw a UCLA squad capable of anything.
The Bruins had a 15-11 overall record, 6-8 in the Pac-10, coming
into their game with California. The Cal game was a must-win,
considering UCLA would face Stanford next. Two losses would dampen
the Bruins’ hopes of getting into the NCAA Tournament.
UCLA came from behind to crush the Golden Bears 83-62. With the
inspired play at Cal, and the return of JaRon Rush from a 24-game
suspension for NCAA rule violations, oddmakers didn’t count
the Bruins out of giving the Cardinal a run for their money in Palo
Alto.
“The Cal game was what really sparked us,” UCLA
forward Jason Kapono said this week. “We started out down 19
and came back and won by 21. My mindset for the next game against
Stanford when we got down was to get started up like we had against
Cal. We knew what we were capable of and the talent we
had.”
There wasn’t really anything special about March 4 of last
year. The start of the Stanford game could not have been scripted
better for Hollywood. Stanford’s Sixth Man ““ the
student section in Maples ““ verbally attacked Rush, and stab
after stab, the Cardinal viciously attacked the Bruins. After the
game’s first two-and-a-half minutes UCLA was down 12-0.
“I thought the Bruins played horrible until they threw
caution to the wind and let the talent run loose,” current
UCLA freshman Janou Rubin said. A Bay Area high school senior at
James Logan, Rubin decided to attend Stanford before reversing his
decision and coming to Westwood. “I always knew (UCLA) had
more talent than Stanford, but it took them so long to figure it
out.”
Then, with the Bruins down 18-4, Rush made his first appearance
for UCLA since the team’s third game of the season.
A furious run over the next eight minutes ““ in large part
to a stifling defense on the perimeter that shocked Stanford
““ allowed UCLA to outscore the Cardinal 23-9 and tie the
score at 27.
It started with a Dan Gadzuric turnaround bank shot, followed
with a carbon-copy shot by Jerome Moiso on the other block.
Rush’s first basket, a three-pointer, followed. UCLA had gone
0 for 14 against Stanford from beyond the arc in their previous
meeting, but the next five Bruin baskets were long-range bombs.
The well-oiled Stanford machine was human, and the fact they
hadn’t received a challenge from anyone up to that point was
the chink in the Cardinal armor. The Bruins drew blood, slitting a
cut on Madsen’s throat and forcing him to seek medical
attention on the bench.
A fury of Cardinal offense followed, but UCLA never let Stanford
pull away by more than five points. With 59 seconds left in the
first half, Stanford had a 43-38 lead.
On the Bruins’ last possession before the half, Earl
Watson drove down the baseline. Met by a double-team, he swung the
ball over to Billy Knight in the left corner. Knight threw a
three-pointer over Moseley’s extended arms that tickled the
nylon as time expired, and the Bruins went into the half only down
43-41.
“Moseley closed out on me fast and I had to shoot it high
because I thought he might block it,” Knight recalled.
“When it went in, I was pumped. It was a big lift for the
team.”
With the dragon wounded, UCLA went to work in the second half.
Disregarding the mounting foul trouble ““ Moiso and Rush had
three fouls and Gadzuric had two ““ the Bruins continued with
the pressure defense.
The Bruins tied the score on their first possession of the
second half and Watson had a three-pointer to give UCLA its first
lead of the game at 46-43.
Throughout the game the Bruins pushed the ball up the floor and
looked to Rush to take the game above the rim.
“Definitely the lobs to JaRon (Rush) were what I
remember,” Watson said. “People have to remember that
JaRon didn’t practice all year at all. The kid flew up to the
Bay Area and scored 19 in his first game back. That was the most
amazing thing I have ever seen.”
The Cardinal’s most crucial shot came with 16 seconds left
in the game. Stanford’s Michael McDonald hit a three to give
his team an 80-78 advantage.
After a timeout, the Bruins opted to go into the 1-4 offense and
get the ball to Moiso. Receiving the ball from Watson with three
seconds to go, Moiso turned on Jason Collins and hit a short
turnaround hook in the key to tie the game at the buzzer and send
it into overtime.
“When I was trying to get the ball into Jerome, I thought
I had a lot more time,” Watson said. “If you watch the
tape, it looks like I am just taking my time. When the horn
sounded, I was getting back to play defense while the rest of my
teammates were heading to the bench. Then I realized that we were
going to overtime.”
UCLA lost Moiso with a little more than two minutes left in the
extra session while the team was trailing 89-87. But the Bruins got
a turnaround hook shot from Matt Barnes to tie the game at 89. The
sharpshooting Moseley knocked down a three, and one Cardinal free
throw later, Stanford had the 93-89 lead with 54 seconds to go.
That’s when the CBS color analyst called
“Ballgame!” as did the majority witnessing the game in
person and on national television.
Except for the Bruins.
Rush took a three-pointer from the top of the key over Madsen to
cut the deficit to one with 42 seconds to go. On the ensuing
inbound play, Jarron Collins and Stanford were whistled for a five
second violation and the ball was awarded to UCLA.
Then came the Miracle.
Set in the 1-4, Barnes got the ball at the elbow and stopped
after taking a few dribbles off a drive. He kicked the ball out to
guard Ray Young, who drove and pulled up for a fadeaway jumper that
touched enough of the rim to reset the shot clock.
Barnes and Young fought with Stanford’s Moseley for the
ball. When it tipped into the air along the baseline, two players
had an equal chance at recovering the basketball: Jacobsen and
Rush. Clawing for the rock, Rush out-muscled the freshman, turned
and hit a 12-foot baseline jumper with three seconds left in
overtime. The Bruins now led 94-93.
A Stanford desperation heave at half-court fell short, and UCLA
knocked off the No. 1 team in the nation. This all but assured them
a spot in March Madness and their place in Bruin lore.
“It was really one of those situations where it looked as
if the Bruins were going to lose,” said XTRA 1150
play-by-play announcer Chris Roberts, who called the game.
“And all of a sudden, Rush’s shot goes in. After that,
the thought that was going into my mind was, “˜Oh my goodness
gracious … they won the game!’
“I would probably rate the game No. 2 behind the NCAA
Tournament game in 1995 when Tyus Edney hit the game-winning shot
on the road against Missouri. In my opinion, as a broadcaster over
the last 10 years in covering the Bruins, I would put the game
against Stanford last year right after that.”
They swept the Washington schools a week later. Then UCLA
handled Ball State and murdered Maryland en route to the NCAA
Regional semifinal. They fell short of their quest for the Final
Four in a loss to Iowa State in Detroit, but not before producing a
winning streak almost unmatched in modern UCLA history.
For the 1999-2000 squad, March 4, 2000 was the day David
conquered Goliath.
THE MIRACLE AT MAPLES Boxscore for UCLA’s
overtime victory over Stanford last year. UCLA
FG-FGA 3P-3PA
FT-FTA RB PTS
AST MIN Jason Kapono 4-11 3-6 1-2
7 12 1 38 Sean Farnham 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 Jerome Moiso 7-11 0-0
3-5 12 17 3 30 Ryan Bailey 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 5 Earl Watson 6-10 3-6
0-0 5 15 13 45 Dan Gadzuric 5-9 0-0 0-0 3 10 1 19 Ray Young 0-4 0-1
2-2 2 2 0 16 Billy Knight 3-5 3-5 0-0 1 9 1 18 JaRon Rush 7-10 3-5
2-3 3 19 1 26 Matt Barnes 4-6 0-0 2-3 1 10 3 23 Rico Hines 0-0 0-0
0-0 0 0 0 4 TOTAL 33-66
12-23 10-15 34
94 23 225
Stanford FG-FGA
3P-3PA FT-FTA RB
PTS AST MIN
Casey Jacobsen 6-13 2-6 5-8 3 19 3 41 Mark Madsen 6-9 0-0 5-10 6 17
3 31 Jarron Collins 4-6 0-0 6-9 7 14 0 38 Michael McDonald 3-5 3-4
1-2 1 10 5 43 David Moseley 6-11 3-6 7-7 3 22 6 33 Ryan Mendez 1-6
0-3 0-0 1 2 1 17 Jason Collins 2-6 0-0 5-6 10 9 1 20 Tony
Giovancchini 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 2 TOTAL
28-56 8-19 29-42
32 93 19
225 Halftime: Stanford 43, UCLA 41 Field Goal Pct:
Stanford .500, UCLA.545 Three-Point Field Goal Pct: Stanford .421,
UCLA .522 Free Throw Pct: Stanford .690, UCLA .667 Technicals: UCLA
(1)-Young (15:57 Second Half) Attendance: 7,391 (sellout)
SOURCE: UCLA SportsInfo Web adaptation by Mark
Sullano