Dec. 30, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) -
UCLA coach Steve Lavin had seen a Purdue comeback like this before - only from the other side.
The former Purdue assistant knew a 16-point, second-half lead for the Bruins wouldn't last long.
He was right.
The Boilermakers cut the gap to two points, but could never take a lead as the Bruins held on to beat Purdue 87-82 on Saturday afternoon.
Jason Kapono scored 22 points and Dan Gadzuric had 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead UCLA.
"We knew when we had the big lead, they were going to make a run, knowing the kind of talk coach Keady probably gave in that locker room. I've witnessed it firsthand, many a time. I knew they were going to claw, fight, scratch, find any way to get back into the game, and they did," said Lavin, who was part of Keady's staff from 1989-91.
Kapono and Gadzuric proved to be a potent inside-outside force. Gadzuric didn't miss a shot in eight attempts and made most of those on wide-open dunks. Kapono was 3-of-5 from 3-point range.
"When Kopono is stroking the ball, it opens the inside attack for Gadzuric. When Gadzuric establishes that low-post presence, that complements the inside-outside balance, which is what every coach strives for," Lavin said.
The duo helped the Bruins (5-4) take a 56-40 lead early in the second half after Gadzuric completed a 3-point play. The Boilermakers (8-3) went on a 14-7 run, keyed by two 3-pointers by Rodney Smith, who scored a career-high 27 points.
Purdue put pressure on the guards, but the Bruins countered by calling for screens and dumping the ball down to Gadzuric.
"We wanted to deny the ball to them and not let them catch it," Keady said. "Then we started stabbing at it, and blow by them. It would be 4-on-5, and they'd get backdoor plays off it because we were letting them catch."
UCLA was able to push the lead back to 16 with a little more than 10 minutes left in the game, before Purdue rallied again.
Maynard Lewis hit a 3-pointer and a second-chance layup as he scored 10 of his 14 points during a four-minute stretch.
Smith's bucket at the 3:40 mark cut the deficit to 80-75. Smith and John Allison then scored on consecutive possessions, and it was 82-79.
Carson Cunningham's free throw on the ensuing possession made it 82-80, but that was as close as Purdue came. Willie Deane missed a 3-point attempt with 45 seconds left, and the Bruins sealed the victory with free throws.
"We designed the play for that," Keady of Deane's 3-point attempt. "If you look at the stats, he's the best 3-point shooter in the league. It worked perfectly - it just didn't go down."
The Boilermakers were only 20-of-31 from the free-throw line, and Keady said that hurt them more than anything UCLA did.
"What beat us was our free-throw shooting. That, and we were being very tentative against press instead of attacking and going down and scoring," Keady said.
UCLA snapped a 22-22 first half tie with a 26-9 run to end the first half. The Bruins shot 58 percent overall.
"We're just having problems sustaining leads. They're a good team, but that's something we've got to work on," said UCLA's Matt Barnes who scored 14 points.
The Bruins snapped Purdue's seven-game winning streak.