BRUINS BARELY GET BY COLUMBIA RALLIES TO SCARE UCLA UCLA 64, COLUMBIA 55.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

It wasn't the NCAA Tournament and it wasn't Princeton. But this was awfully close - too close.

The UCLA basketball team, after nearly blowing a 22-point lead in the second half, staved off Columbia, 64-55, in a nonconference game Thursday night before a fidgety crowd of 8,990 at Pauley Pavilion.

The Bruins, who were within an offensive goal-tending call of watching their lead shrink to a basket with a minute left to play, were just happy to have this one over with.

It was UCLA's sixth consecutive victory, but the Bruins (8-2) head into Saturday's nationally televised game against Georgetown more with a sense of relief than confidence.

``We just broke down mentally,'' said UCLA forward T.J. Cummings, who scored 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting for the Bruins.

Jason Kapono added 16 points and Billy Knight had 14, but the Bruins spent much of the last 10 minutes watching their lead dissolve behind the 3-point shooting of Treg Duerksen and one empty possession after another.

Duerksen's 3-pointer with 1:46 to play brought the Lions (7-5), who haven't had a winning record since 1993, within 59-55.

Columbia appeared to have closed within 59-57 when Joe Case tipped in Chris Wiedemann's follow shot with 52.1 seconds left, but it was called off for offensive goal tending, much to the dismay of Columbia coach Armond Hill.

``It was a terrible call,'' Hill said. ``I don't want to take anything away from UCLA, but I wonder how those (officials) can sleep. It was a critical call. If that goes, there's a minute left and we can play honestly, make them beat us. Instead, we have to foul.''

Columbia, having committed only three fouls, quickly fouled four times to get the Bruins into the bonus. The seventh foul was on Matt Barnes, a 70-percent free-throw shooter. Barnes made the first, but missed the second, putting UCLA ahead 60-55 with 42 seconds left.

The Lions freed Craig Austin for a long 3-pointer with 29 seconds left, but UCLA's Rico Hines knocked the ball out of bounds. Columbia had one more shot when Duerksen, Columbia's leading scorer who had 21 points on seven 3-pointers, launched another from behind the 3-point line.

But Duerksen's jumper missed and Kapono rebounded. He was fouled and hit both free throws to seal the victory.

``We just dug too deep a hole,'' Duerksen said.

Cedric Bozeman, who was cleared by doctors Wednesday to return for ``limited minutes,'' did not suit up. Bozeman, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Dec. 3, has not yet made it through a full practice.

That again left most of the point-guard duties in the hands of Kapono.

Again, he spent most of the first half passing up shots instead of taking them. Kapono, who during the last five games had scored just 23 of his 99 points in the first half, had just two at halftime.

However, less than three minutes into the second half, Kapono made a milestone basket. His 3-pointer from the wing, his first of the game, was the 198th of his career, surpassing Tracy Murray's school record.

UCLA center Dan Gadzuric, who emerged from an early-season slump by scoring 43 points in the wins of Washington and Washington State last week, again looked lost and confused.

He scored three points and grabbed two rebounds in the first half and often look ill-equipped to stop Chris Wiedemann's variety of post moves. In the second half, Gadzuric was even worse. He didn't score and picked up three fouls, heading to the bench with his fourth with 10:27 left to play, and never returned. He finished with three points and two rebounds in 13 minutes.

Wiedemann, meanwhile, contributed nine points, 13 rebounds and three blocks in 36 minutes.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

UCLA's Jason Kapono and Columbia's Chris Wiedemann battle for a loose ball during Thursday night's game.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach