UCLA HAS A DEVIL OF A TOUGH TIME LETHARGIC BRUINS LOSE TO ASU FOR 1ST TIME AT PAULEY SINCE '87 ARIZONA ST. 69, UCLA 68.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

If age were the equivalent of wisdom and experience were to be taken for knowledge, then the UCLA basketball not only would be smarter. It wouldn't be in sixth place in the Pacific-10 Conference, either.

Instead, the veteran Bruins, who were near-unanimous picks to win the conference title, continued to take their lessons the hard way, losing Saturday to Arizona State 69-68 in front of a Pauley Pavilion crowd of 9,823 that booed the Bruins off the court.

It was hard to tell where the fans were directing their scorn: at another lackluster effort, the players' lack of poise, or another late-game brain cramp by UCLA coach Steve Lavin. Or all of the above.

The 20th-ranked Bruins (17-8, 9-5), who squandered the capital they earned with Thursday's victory over Arizona, now trail USC, Stanford, Oregon and California by a game, and are a half-game back of Arizona. They're also faced with having to win their final four games - including next weekend's trip to the Bay Area - and hoping somebody knocks off USC if they're to win their first Pac-10 title in five years.

Yet, more significantly, the Bruins have established a disconcerting pattern as they head toward the Pac-10 and the NCAA tournaments. Each of the past six weekends, they've split their two games.

``The end is coming fast,'' senior guard Billy Knight said. ``And it seems like we're going backwards.''

It's hard to classify Saturday as anything other than a giant step to the rear.

Arizona State (14-10, 7-8), whose only road victory this season was at Washington State, hadn't won at Pauley Pavilion since 1987 and had lost 25 of the past 26 to the Bruins.

Furthermore, the Sun Devils, who were whipped at USC on Thursday by 22 points, were playing without injured guard Kenny Crandall, their best 3-point shooter, and forward Awvee Storey, who was averaging a double-double in his career against UCLA.

``It was like we beat Arizona State before the game even started,'' Knight said. ``We took it for granted. We were going through the motions out there.''

The Bruins, who trailed by 14 points in the first half, were uninterested on defense and flummoxed by the zone that Arizona State - primarily a man-to-man team - threw at them. The Bruins turned the ball over 18 times, managed seven offensive rebounds after getting 17 against Arizona, and of their 53 shots, just seven were taken by leading scorer Jason Kapono - the second fewest he's taken this season.

``It doesn't matter who we play, we're a peak-and-valley team,'' Kapono said. ``It's our mindset. We feel too high and get fat heads and don't stick to what we've done in the past. We played too passive. We were soft.''

Yet, they were ahead 64-61 on Cedric Bozeman's tip-in with 4:23 left.

It turned out to be their last basket. The Bruins missed two shots, turned the ball over twice and missed the front end of two 1-and-1s the rest of the way.

ASU center Chad Prewitt, who had a game-high 25 points and eight rebounds, also made each of the five 3-pointers he attempted. His final one, coming off a screen in the corner, tied the score at 66 with 2:11 to play.

After a miss by Kapono, ASU got the ball back with 45 seconds to play and worked a pick-and-roll play with guard Curtis Millage and Prewitt. Millage, who missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer in UCLA's 82-79 victory in Tempe last month, came off the screen and swished a 3-pointer to put ASU ahead 69-66 with 14 seconds to play.

``I'm from L.A., so this means a lot,'' said Millage, who won a L.A. City title at Manual Arts High and a state championship last year at L.A. Southwest College. ``That's not my strength (shooting 3's), but I knew if I got a good look I could make it.''

UCLA called timeout to set up a 3-pointer. ASU, which was instructed to foul immediately rather than let Kapono, Knight or Matt Barnes launch a 3-pointer, was delighted when the ball was inbounded to Bozeman, who had made just 6 of 19 free throws this season.

Bozeman, who was fouled with 7.3 seconds left, missed the front end of the 1-and-1, but the Bruins got another chance when Prewitt was whistled for fouling Barnes on the rebound. Barnes made both free throws, bringing the Bruins within 69-68 with 7.1 seconds left.

The only problem was that UCLA, which had committed only three fouls, needed to foul ASU four times to send it into the bonus. When the Bruins finally sent Kyle Dodd to the free-throw line, there were just 2.3 seconds left.

Lavin called his final timeout before Dodd shot and, when he missed, they had no way to stop the clock and advance the ball with a long inbounds pass. Knight, who grabbed the rebound, traveled trying to free himself for a desperation shot.

``In hindsight, we'd do a lot of things different,'' Lavin said. ``We lost the game, so a lot of things cost us.''

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Photo:

Dan Gadzuric was among the few bright spots Saturday for UCLA, scoring a team-high 17 points against Arizona State.

Edna T. Simpson/Staff Photographer

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GAME RECAP