[0] WEST REGIONAL: MO. BETTER UCLA'S SECOND-HALF STUMBLE ENDS SEASON MISSOURI 82, UCLA 73.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

SAN JOSE - There they stood on the sidelines. Two had their hands on their hips. One had his clasped over his head. Another had a towel draped around his neck and his shirt tail out. The last was fighting back tears.

They all wore the same disbelieving look.

Jason Kapono, Billy Knight, Matt Barnes, Dan Gadzuric and Rico Hines stood and watched the final seconds of the Bruins' 82-73 loss to Missouri only because they had to.

A season that started with the expectations of reaching the Final Four ended short again, and just like the ride through the last month, this one was full of ups and downs, and the unexpected.

The Bruins will rue this one not because they lost but the way they did, blowing an eight-point lead in the final 14 minutes. Just as they rallied to knock off top-seeded Cincinnati, they collapsed against Missouri.

While the Bruins have been to the Sweet 16 five of the last six seasons under coach Steve Lavin, they have advanced past it just once - in 1997.

Missouri (24-11), which will play Oklahoma for the West Regional final Saturday, becomes the first No. 12 seed to advance to a regional final.

UCLA (21-12), which got 23 points and 11 rebounds - both team highs from Barnes - degenerated down the stretch into one-on-one play. The Bruins went through an 11-minute stretch where they scored just 10 points.

Kapono, who scored just seven points, didn't make a 3-pointer and neither did Knight, who scored 16 points. The Bruins were 3 for 17 on 3-pointers.

Missouri stormed back behind its star perimeter players, Clarence Gilbert, who scored 23 points and Kareem Rush, who tossed in 20. They combined for 31 points in the second half when they hit seven of their eight 3-pointers.

Missouri, which trailed 49-41, its biggest deficit of the game, stormed back behind a barrage of 3-point shooting by its star shooters - Gilbert and Rush. Rush hit a pair of 3-pointers sandwiched around one by Gilbert on three consecutive possessions and suddenly UCLA trailed 63-59.

The Bruins didn't help their plight by free lancing on offense.

On four consecutive possessions, the Bruins went one-on-one and only once did they end up scoring, on Cedric Bozeman's drive to the basket.

After Arthur Johnson's three-point play put UCLA ahead 68-61, the Bruins turned the ball over on three of the next four possessions. The last of which, led to a three-on-none breakaway by Missouri with the Tigers ahead by 10.

But Ricky Paulding, the Tigers' best athlete, tried a Michael Jordan-esque dunk, only to clank it off the back rim. The ball came out tohalfcourt, Knight grabbed it and hit a short jumper to bring the Bruins within eight and give them some hope.

The Bruins had control of the game early in the second half when Barnes scored nine consecutive points. He drove to the basket, then hit a3-pointer, spun in the lane for a bucket and then followed up a teammate's miss. At the end of it, UCLA led 43-36. They opened it to eight, but couldn't hang on.

UCLA, after playing a miserable first half - at least the Bruins had company - opened the second half with a 6-0 run to take a 34-30 lead. It was keyed by Gadzuric's block of a dunk by Missouri center Arthur Johnson.

Gadzuric then hustled to the other end of the court where he took an alley-oop pass from Knight for a dunk. Bozeman scored on a layup off an inbounds play and Knight stole a pass that he took half the length of the court for a layup.

The Bruins, who shot 31 percent in the first half, trailed 30-28 at halftime and had every reason to be kicking themselves over it. They controlled the boards, grabbing nine offensive rebounds and owning a 22-19 advantage. They were handed 10 turnovers - mostly unforced - by Missouri. And they led 26-18 when Knight hit a pair of free throws with 4:38 left in the half.

The game, which was a struggle between two under-performing offenses, was poised for the Bruins to take control of.

Then Paulding got hot for the Tigers. Finding a spot on the baseline against UCLA's zone, Paulding hit a high-arching jumper over Gadzuric. Two possessions later, he hit a 3-pointer from the wing. Then he followed with another from the same spot in front of the Bruins' bench and the score was tied 26-26 with 2:17 left in the half.

UCLA, which had been scoreless on four consecutive possessions, regained the lead when Gadzuric followed Kapono's missed jumper. Kapono had a chance to build on the lead, but he missed the front end of a 1-and-1.

Wesley Stokes, the sophomore from Long Beach, found a gap in the Bruins' zone and hit a jumper in the lane to pull Missouri even, and Paulding put the Tigers ahead 30-28 with another jumper.

Paulding scored all 11 of his first-half points in the final 4 1/2 minutes.

Missouri received a scare early when, on the first possession of the game, starting guard Clarence Gilbert injured a finger on his left, nonshooting hand. He came out the game, had it taped up and returned.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 7 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) UCLA's Dan Gadzuric is run over by Missouri's Kareem Rush in the first half Thursday night.

Ben Margot/Associated Press

(2) UCLA coach Steve Lavin encourages his team in the final minutes of Thursday night's game in San Jose.

JulieJacobson/Associated Press

Box:

(1) REGION SEMIFINALS

(2) TODAY'S TV TIPOFFS

(3) SATURDAY'S GAMES

(4) GAME RECAP

(5) WEST REGION

(6) EAST REGION

(7) MIDWEST REGION