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Men's hoops finds trouble in paradise

Bruins lose 75-71 decision to Vanderbilt, finish sixth in Maui Invitational tourney

SCOTT O/Daily Bruin

Junior Charles O'Bannon's basket in the final minute against vanderbilt was not enough for UCLA to overcome the Commodores Wednesday at the Maui Invitational.By Scott Yamaguchi

Daily Bruin Staff

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- The tropical island paradise of Maui turned out to be

far from pleasant for the UCLA men's basketball team, which dropped a 75-71

decision to Vanderbilt at the Lahaina Civic Center Wednesday and wound up

sixth in the Maui Invitational's field of eight.

The Bruins, now 1-2, have already matched their loss total from last

year's championship season, and 27 games remain on their regular-season

schedule.

"These guys, they had it easy last year," UCLA head coach Jim Harrick

says. "They thought you just come out and put 'em on. You're gonna have to

learn the hard way. If we didn't think we were going to have to learn the

hard way, I understood that, I just was waiting to see it happen."

Harrick didn't have to wait long. The Bruins, who were one of the

tournament favorites with a No. 4 preseason national ranking, lost their

first game of the season in a shocking upset by Santa Clara last Monday.

They did rebound to beat Wisconsin Tuesday, but against Vanderbilt on

Wednesday, UCLA showed more of what hurt so much in the loss to Santa

Clara.

And it had the same effect against the Commodores.

Looking uninspired and unemotional, the Bruins were generally outhustled

by a Vanderbilt squad that finished the 1994-95 season with a 13-15 record

and did not receive a postseason invitation of any kind.

UCLA, behind five quick points from junior forward Charles O'Bannon, did

jump out to an early 8-3 lead. But Vanderbilt's Malik Evans made a reverse

lay-in just over three minutes into the half, and the Commodores went on a

27-9 scoring run over the next eight minutes.

"They jumped on us real early," Harrick says. "Again, we came out

without the kind of emotion you need to play, because everybody is going to

come after us like that."

Evans, who finished with 20 points and eight rebounds, accounted for 11

points in the run, including the first eight. Following his lay-in, Evans

converted one of UCLA's 11 first half turnovers into a three-point basket

from the left corner. That tied the score at eight, and 48 seconds later,

Evans' three-point play gave the Commodores a lead that reached 13 points

when Drew Maddux closed the big scoring run with a 23-foot bomb at the 8:37

mark.

Maddux finished the game with 19 points, including four

three-pointers.

"He was just catching 'em and throwing 'em," Harrick says of Maddux. "I

thought that was real interesting, but he shot the ball really well."

UCLA, on the other hand, did not, especially before halftime. In the

first 20 minutes, the Bruins shot a dismal 36 percent from the floor. That,

combined with a 65 percent clip from the foul line, helps to explain why

Vanderbilt led by 15 points after Gianni Cugini's free throw with 3:07 left

in the half.

That's about the time that UCLA woke up. The Bruins, on the strength of

five points by J.R. Henderson, staged a 7-0 run over the last three minutes

of the half that brought the deficit back down to eight points at

42-34.

Then, in the second half, Jelani McCoy's tip-in with 12:50 remaining cut

the lead to one point. Three minutes later, a 16-foot jumper by Henderson,

who finished with a team-high 16 points and 15 rebounds, actually put UCLA

up by a point at 55-54.

"We knew they were gonna make a run," Maddux says, "but we were

confident enough to just hold them off."

Maddux was especially confident, and 30 seconds after Henderson's

jumper, he tried a three-point shot from the left side. It was good, giving

Vanderbilt a two-point lead that it would never relinquish.

UCLA would cut it to one point on a lay-up by Kris Johnson with 3:54

left in the game, but Vanderbilt's Frank Seckar nailed a three-pointer from

the left corner on the Commodores' next possession, pushing the lead back

to four. Seckar finished with 16 points, 12 of which came from behind the

three-point stripe.

O'Bannon cut the lead to two points again for UCLA with a three-point

play with 51.4 seconds remaining, but a tip-in by Evans with 14 seconds

left secured the victory for Vanderbilt.

On the bright side, the Bruins dominated the boards with a 49-27

advantage. They turned the ball over just six times and made all three of

their free throws in the second half, and finished the game with a 41.7

shooting percentage. Vanderbilt shot 43.1 percent from the field and turned

the ball over only 11 times in the game.

"I'm disappointed about losing," Harrick says. "But I'm trying to learn

what these guys can do and what they can't do as they step on the floor. I

thought we did some things well, we did some things not so well, also. When

you miss foul shots, lay-ins and turn the ball over, you're probably going

to get beat, and we've got to cut that out. We've got to cut down on that -

that's just carelessness and nonconcentration."