DANIEL WONG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Arizona State center
Chad Prewitt attempts to wrestle the ball away
from Bruin senior Billy Knight. UCLA snuck by ASU
with an 82-79 win. UCLA 82 ASU 79
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
TEMPE, Ariz. “”mdash; Silent was the night.
Injured senior team captain Rico Hines was on the bench in
street clothes, taking off the court with him his always-active
vocal cords.
Replacing Hines in the UCLA men’s basketball team’s
starting lineup was true freshman point guard Cedric Bozeman, who
in his own quiet way, led the No. 9 Bruins (13-3, 5-1 Pac 10) to a
82-79 victory over Arizona State (10-6, 3-4) Thursday night in
front of 9,103 fans at the Wells Fargo Arena.
Throughout the game, no Bruin yelled, pounded his chest or gave
a teammate a slap on the rear.
Bozeman certainly didn’t.
What resulted from the lack of vocal leadership was a terribly
disorganized Bruin defense, which somehow allowed a talentless Sun
Devil squad to trim a 14-point UCLA lead down to three. The Bruins
were careless on offense at times as well, turning the ball over 18
times.
But all UCLA head coach Steve Lavin wanted was a win, regardless
of the form it came in.
“We did just enough to win the game,” said Lavin,
who claimed his team was still tired from last week after playing
USC and Kansas. “We won ugly. But sometimes, in conference,
you have to settle with a “˜W.'”
Although some facets of the Bruins’ game suffered due to
Hines’ absence, others were enhanced by the increased playing
time Bozeman received.
In his 23 minutes on the court, Bozeman recorded a career-high
seven assists, and he probably would have had more had he not
gotten himself into foul trouble. He was particularly effective in
the open court and did a good job of spreading the ball around,
helping four Bruins score in double-digits ““ Billy Knight (21
points), Jason Kapono (20), Matt Barnes (19) and Dan Gadzuric
(14).
“His poise and presence is unusual for someone 18 years
old,” Lavin said. “You look for someone like that to be
your point guard or quarterback.”
“Cedric’s a great point guard,” added Barnes,
who snagged a game-high nine rebounds. “He knows who to get
the ball to.”
Hines, however, was missed.
“Defensively, this is the kind of game where you really
need Rico Hines,” Lavin said. “Our concentration late
in the game was nowhere close to where it needed to be. It let our
lead whittle away.”
“Rico’s a big-time vocal leader,” Bozeman
said. “What you saw, we saw, too. We need to talk more and be
more vocal when he’s not here.”
And had it not been for the barbarous home fans, having Hines on
the bench could have been even more costly. With 40 seconds
remaining in the contest and UCLA up only 76-72, the crowd reacted
to a foul awarded to Kapono by throwing coins onto the court.
Earlier, the Sun Devil supporters had been warned for throwing a
piece of pizza near the Bruin bench. (“Canadian bacon, I
think it was,” Lavin said.”)
Arizona State was nailed with a technical foul, giving Kapono
two free throws in addition to the two he had already earned. The
junior forward sunk all four and gave UCLA an eight-point
advantage.
The call did not leave Sun Devil head coach Rob Evans
particularly happy.
“That technical shouldn’t happen,” he said.
“When the game is close, you let the players decide
things.”
Still, Arizona State remained in the game. Center Chad Prewitt,
who paced the Sun Devils with 22 points, hit a three-pointer with
12 seconds to go, bringing his team to within three, 82-79.
After Bozeman missed a pair of free throws, guard Curt Millage
had an opportunity to level the game, but he stepped across the
three-point line before unleashing his desperation heave ““
then missed the shot.
“We’ve got a lot of areas to improve on,” said
Lavin, whose team faces Arizona in Tuscon on Saturday. “We
are still four to six weeks away. We are a work in progress, but
it’s nice to be winning when we are playing this
poorly.”