UCLA’s Odd Season Gets Even Odder

How’s this for a rebound?

Seven days after the Bruins’ all-time worst defeat, they took another strange turn on the merry-go-round, grabbing a tie for the top spot in the Pacific 10 Conference after whomping Arizona State on the boards and gliding to a 79-62 victory Thursday night before 10,067 at Pauley Pavilion.

“That’s how it’s going to be this season,” said Bruin guard Toby Bailey, who scored 14 of his 17 points in the decisive first half, after hearing that Arizona had lost at USC.

“Everybody else was acting like the world was ending after the Stanford game, and I think we were the only ones who knew we still could be in first place at the end of this week.”

With interim Coach Steve Lavin keeping Kris Johnson out of the game as a precautionary measure to rest his sore ankle, the Bruins (9-4, 4-1), who won for the sixth time in seven games, were still too big for the Sun Devils.

Jelani McCoy, back in the starting lineup after being used a reserve last Saturday, soared over the Sun Devil frontcourt players, outrebounding them, 9-8, by himself, in the first half, and grabbing a career-high-tying 15 in the game. McCoy’s previous season high was 10 rebounds.

UCLA outrebounded Arizona State, 42-26.

“He’s just such a dominating force in there--he’s so much bigger and stronger than anybody we have,” said Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder, whose winless streak against UCLA is now 16 games.

McCoy, looking calmer and more confident than he ever has within the Bruin half-court offense, also scored 15 points (on six of eight shooting) and had a career-high five assists.

And, in perhaps his proudest achievement, McCoy made all three of his free throw attempts, raising his free-throw percentage to 35.3%

“He was focused out there tonight,” Bailey said of McCoy. “He was happy, and when your big men are happy, they play hard. He knew we were going to give him the ball, so he had no fear that he wouldn’t get it back. That’s why he was kicking it back.”

Said McCoy: “I think a lot of things are getting under control for me right now.”

Bailey also benefited from the Bruins’ zippier passing--he made four of six three-point tries to scorch Arizona State’s zone in the first half, added another in the second half, and scored 17 points.

J.R. Henderson and Charles O’Bannon also each scored 17 points, and Henderson had eight rebounds.

“We were kicking it around real good, getting a great blend of inside and outside, and that’s hard to stop,” Bailey said.

Playing without Johnson, one of their most consistent offensive presences, the already-thin Bruins started out committing jumpy turnovers on for of their first five possessions and fell behind, 7-0.

“With one of main guys down, we knew we all had to step up,” McCoy said. “We all had to give more effort. I was just concentrating on getting rebounds, that’s all my mind was on. Not anything else.”

Lavin said Johnson could have played against the Sun Devils (9-7, 1-3) if he was needed, but said he wanted to make sure Johnson was 100% ready to play Arizona on Saturday at Pauley.

Johnson has soft tissue damage in his right ankle, an injury that kept him sidelined for the first few weeks of fall practice and that was aggravated late last week.

After the early shakes, the Bruins settled down, started moving and passing to open spaces, and fought back to a 12-12 tie with 12:40 left to play in the half.

Then, Bailey heated up, drilling three of his long-distance baskets in the middle of UCLA’s game-turning 28-15 run in the last 10:37 of the half, giving the Bruins a 44-31 lead.

The Bruins pulled away for good after a brief Sun Devil rally early in the second half, and consecutive steals by O’Bannon (followed by an O’Bannon slam) and Bailey (followed by a McCoy slam) opened the lead to 52-39 with 14 minutes left to play.

And seven days after the 48-point loss at Stanford, UCLA was tied for first place.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” O’Bannon said. “That game, you might as well throw it out. That wasn’t us.”