BRUINS TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT THOMPSON'S 25 NOT ENOUGH OREGON ST. 65, UCLA 56.

Byline: Jill Painter Staff Writer

CORVALLIS, Ore. - UCLA decided to do this the hard way.

All the Bruins needed was a victory Thursday to qualify for the Pacific- 10 Conference tournament. They couldn't come up with that, even against hapless Oregon State.

Despite 18 turnovers and an inability to make clutch shots down the stretch in a 65-56 loss Thursday against the Beavers, UCLA still can make the conference tournament despite having lost its fifth consecutive game.

The easy way would be to beat favored Oregon on Saturday. If UCLA loses, there's a plethora of scenarios, only one of which doesn't suit the Bruins.

The Bruins got a season-high 25 points from Dijon Thompson, including a career-high seven 3-pointers, but stumbled down the stretch without guard Cedric Bozeman, who was in foul trouble. Oregon State stayed alive and beat UCLA, which is good at beating itself at Gill Coliseum.

UCLA must beat Oregon on Saturday or face tiebreaker situations. If Washington State loses to Cal or Oregon State loses to USC, UCLA is in the tournament. But if UCLA loses and there's a four-way tie with USC, Washington State and Oregon State, UCLA's season is over.

In a four-way tie, the tiebreaker is collective head-to-head wins. UCLA has just two - against Washington State and Oregon State - the fewest of any of the four teams.

``Wow,'' UCLA coach Ben Howland said. ``'This is very disappointing. We, again, had opportunities late in the game on the road and to be down one with a chance to stop, it was huge.''

Washington State called a timeout and Chris Stephens, who had 18 points, made a 3-pointer from the right wing against UCLA's zone for a 57-53 lead. Oregon State finished the game with an 11-3 run.

The Bruins (11-15, 7-10) are tied with USC for sixth in the Pac-10. But again, they may not make the tournament. UCLA had a pretty simple formula: win and it was in.

UCLA swept the Oregon schools in January. The Bruins beat Oregon State 77-66 on Jan. 2 but their demise since then is well-chronicled.

UCLA played sloppy and committed 11 first-half turnovers. Maybe one reason was the Bruins arrived in Eugene at about 11 p.m. Thursday night as they were delayed three hours during a layover in San Francisco.

Oregon State, which led 28-24 at halftime, went on a 9-0 run with 12:10 left to build a 46-37 lead. The Bruins rallied, but never took the lead.

Thompson had a hot hand early and the Bruins shot 52 percent in the first half. Thompson's seven 3-pointers tied a record at Gill Coliseum, which opened in the 1949-50 season.

It was an ugly first half, however, marred by an appalling amount of errant shots, including easy layups. Oregon State missed two inside shots within the first two minutes of the second half, continuing an embarrassing trend.

The way the Beavers played Thursday, it was awfully hard to imagine how they beat Arizona at Gill Coliseum.

UCLA never had more than a six-point lead. Thompson gave UCLA a 8-2 lead after he nailed a 3-pointer from the right wing with 16:13 left in the first half. Trevor Ariza lost his right shoe on the play. He ran down the court on offense and picked up his shoe and put it on while playing defense on the other end.

Ryan Walcott played most of the last 10 minutes after Bozeman picked up his fourth foul with 10:44 left. He didn't get back into the game until there was 30 seconds left and the Oregon State fans were in the midst of a standing ovation at that time.

Brian Morrison, who has missed the last six of eight games with a sprained right ankle, returned to action. Morrison entered with 10:38 leftin the first half. His time was uneventful. He played four scoreless minutes in the first half.

Jill Painter, [phone]

jill.painter(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, 2 boxes

Photo:

(color) UCLA's T.J. Cummings tries to pass despite pressure from Oregon State's Jim Hanchett on Thursday as UCLA suffered its fifth consecutive defeat.

Tiffany Brown/Associated Press

Box:

(1) STORY LINES

(2) STANDINGS