It’s Night to Soar for Bruin McCoy

TEMPE, Ariz. —  Jelani McCoy, who hit a career high and then kept elevating, bent the rims and kissed the sky Thursday night.

Never straying much more than a giant step from the hoop, but often pogo-ing an arm’s length above it, McCoy towered over Arizona State, leading UCLA to an 87-73 victory before 11,081 at the University Activities Center.

It was a one-freshman basketball performance that included at least five power slam dunks, a Magic Johnson-style coast-to-coast 80-foot weave-dribble and soft lay-in, 10 rebounds, two blocked shots, three steals and a team-and-career high 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting.

“Jelani killed them tonight,” said forward Kris Johnson, who chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds of his own against the outsized Sun Devils.

“The team was looking to get me the ball,” McCoy said, “and I just had a lot of shot opportunities. I’d have to say that was my best offensive game.”

Time and again, when the cold-shooting Sun Devils scrabbled together a counter-attack to get back in the game, McCoy scooped up a loose ball, found an alley-oop pass or burst past his man and got a Bruin basket.

UCLA (12-3, 5-0 in conference play) won its 10th successive game, and its 15th Pac-10 game in a row, dating to last season.

“Our weakness was with McCoy,” Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder said. “His stats were better than our whole front line.”

This was McCoy’s fifth consecutive game in double-figure rebounding, and his third in four games when he had double figures in points and rebounds.

Arizona State (5-7, 0-4), with no starter taller than 6 feet 8, got a combined 16 rebounds and 55 points from two wingmen--Ron Riley had 29 and Jeremy Veal 26--but no other Sun Devil had more than seven points or five rebounds.

The most revealing moment came with about 9:30 left to play, after Arizona State had closed the gap to 69-57, but fumbled away the ball at UCLA’s free-throw line.

The 6-foot-10 McCoy grabbed the loose ball, took two dribbles to fly past half-court, spotted an open lane, zig-zagged from the left side past two Sun Devil defenders, then tossed the basketball in off the backboard to stretch the lead back to 14.

“There was just an opportunity for me to go coast-to-coast,” McCoy said. “They gave me a lane, and I had to take advantage of it.”

Last Saturday, it was Johnson who had the career performance, scoring 36 points to lead the Bruins over California.

“That’s what makes this team dangerous,” Johnson said. “Every night, any one of us can have a huge game.”

McCoy’s across-the-stat-sheet performance helped offset a short stint by Charles O’Bannon, who was removed from the game after drawing his third technical foul of the conference season only four minutes into the second half. O’Bannon left and did not return.

O’Bannon, who had eight points in only 20 minutes, was given the technical when he yelled and gestured at the nearby Sun Devil student section after a dunk. The resulting two free throws and quick jumper by Veal pulled Arizona State within eight, 49-41.

“I just don’t want that any more,” UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said, explaining O’Bannon’s benching. “I’ve had enough.”

Keyed by three consecutive short-range baskets by McCoy, UCLA ran off a 10-0 spree soon after the technical to get out to its biggest lead of the game, 67-50, with 12:20 left to play.

With Riley and Veal banging in long jumpers and pounding the offensive boards, Arizona State eventually chipped the lead back down to six, 71-65, with 6:37 left.

But, once again and finally, UCLA gave up only three more baskets the rest of the way.

During the final run, guard Cameron Dollar, who had five assists and two steals, made a key play when he dived on the floor for a loose ball behind the three-point line, spun and found Johnson alone, breaking to the hoop for an uncontested lay-up.

“They’re so much bigger and more athletic and stronger than we are,” Frieder said of UCLA.

Late in the first half, the Bruins also had a 17-point lead, 43-26, but gave up the last eight points of the half to let ASU back into the game.

“Last year, we had the kind of team that put teams away,” Harrick said. “We can’t do that this year. We’re not that good.”

* USC LOSES

No. 18 Arizona plays without its starting center, but still has enough firepower to coast past the Trojans, 93-81. C6