By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
INGLEWOOD “”mdash; When none of his teammates were able to put
the basketball through the hoop, Matt Barnes came up with baskets.
He hit from everywhere ““ from the paint, from 15 feet out,
from beyond the arc.
But when Barnes had to get the ball out of the backcourt with
less than a minute remaining and his team down six, he
couldn’t ““ his pass whizzed by Jason Kapono and flew
toward the scorer’s table. And when he attempted to nail a
desperate three with 30 seconds left during UCLA’s
last-minute charge, his shot clanked off the rim and fell into the
hands of Trojan guard Brandon Granville.
As the final buzzer sounded in the Bruins’ 81-77 loss to
USC at the Great Western Forum Thursday night, Barnes stood still
as his opponents hopped around him in jubilation, swarmed by
hundreds of USC students who had rushed the court.
The career-high 34 points Barnes scored in the game seemed
insignificant to him. So did his seven three-pointers, which tied a
UCLA school record.
At that moment, what mattered most to him was what he
didn’t do, which was help his team win.
“There are no moral victories,” Barnes said.
“I had a decent game, but we lost. A loss is a
loss.”
A loss which, Barnes felt, he was responsible for.
During the first half, when USC snagged 19 offensive rebounds,
Barnes was often left flat on his feet while Trojans soared over
him to grab the loose ball.
“The whole team is responsible for giving up 19 offensive
rebounds,” he said. “We didn’t take care of what
we had to.”
Nonetheless, Barnes’ 12 first-half points enabled the
Bruins to head into halftime trailing only 37-29, in position to
make a charge after the intermission.
It was a charge Barnes would lead.
Barnes made seven of his nine shots in the second half,
including five of seven from three-point land, for 22 points.
With 4:20 remaining, Barnes hit a three to level the score at
62.
He faced the pro-Trojan crowd, which had been on its feet only
moments before, and put his index finger to his lips. “Shut
up,” he said quietly.
“He was tremendous,” Bruin head coach Steve Lavin
said. “He went inside, outside, exhibiting all of his skills
as a basketball player.
“He came back out in the second half and played his butt
off,” senior guard Rico Hines said. “He played like an
All-American tonight.”
In the end, it didn’t matter, and Barnes returned to
Westwood unimpressed with what was his best offensive outing of the
season, and, perhaps, of his entire collegiate career.
“On any given night, anyone can get hot,” Barnes
said, shrugging as he changed clothes in front of his locker.
“I’ve been struggling all year. On other nights,
it’s been Jason or Billy.”