ARENA BOMB SCARE FORCES DELAY UCLA GAME IS PUSHED BACK 90 MINUTES AFTER SDSU'S COX ARENA IS EVACUATED.

Byline: Ramona Shelburne  Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO - They waited on their buses for about 40 minutes while information came in, trying to stay focused on a game that seemed a lot more important a few hours earlier.

At about 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning, police evacuated San Diego State's Cox Arena before the start of the first round NCAA Tournament game between Marquette and Alabama, after two bomb-sniffing dogs detected a suspicious substance at a food cart outside the arena.

Marquette's Steve Novak had waited three years to get back to the NCAA Tournament. As a freshman in 2003, he was part of Marquette's Final Four team. But the star forward easily was able to take Thursday's bomb scare in stride.

``We all understood the situation, that there had been terror threats at NCAA Tournament sites and that any small thing like this needed to be seriously looked into,'' Novak said. ``It was handled the right way.''

Last week, the FBI issued a general warning about a possible terrorist attack at sporting events.

According to Lt. Robert McManus, an incident commander for the San Diego State Police Deparment, both dogs who detected the suspicious substance near the food cart were very experienced, having worked on several presidential visits to Southern California. One dog was from Cal State Channel Islands, the other was from Cal State Northridge.

The San Diego Metro Arson Strike Team was called in to investigate. About an hour and a half later, two more dogs were brought in, but they did not detect what the first two dogs originally were alerted to, and the ``all clear'' was given.

According to Jeanne Boyd, the director of the men's NCAA Tournament, a similar incident occurred two years ago in Orlando.

``One dog sensed something near an air vent and a second dog was brought in and he detected the same thing,'' Boyd said. ``It ended up being a carbon-dioxide container used in the soda machines at a concession stand that was right next to an air vent. We didn't have to evacuate the arena in that situation.''

No teams had arrived at the arena when the evacuation was ordered. Alabama and Marquette were scheduled to leave their team hotels at 10 a.m. but did not leave until approximately 11:30 a.m., according to school officials.

Several officials from UCLA were on-site during the evacuation and in constant contact with the team, which waited back at its hotel.

``It was scary, but coach (Ben Howland) let us know it was nothing,'' said UCLA's Alfred Aboya, who watched news reports of the bomb threat on CBS and NBC. ''He went to everyone's room and talked about what happened.''

UCLA's opening-round game, the second matchup of the day, was delayed by about 90 minutes from its original start time.

The NCAA opened up an auxiliary gym near the arena for teams playing in the later games to warm up, because the schedule had been so altered.

During the evacuation several thousand fans stood patiently outside the arena, within 20 feet of the entrance gates.

The first game tipped off at 12:50 p.m., 70 minutes later than its original start time. The three subsequent games were also delayed.

Brian Dohn contributed