Hurricanes Just Miss UCLA

ATLANTA — It was a hold-your-breath end to a hold-your-nose game.

Bumbling, brick-handed Miami missed a first-round knockout by a whisper Friday night, missed two open shots at the end, and let sixth-seeded UCLA live another NCAA tournament day.

With stark memories of 1996’s milestone first-round fiasco dancing through their minds, seniors Toby Bailey and J.R. Henderson carried the Bruins over Miami, 65-62, before 17,818 at the Georgia Dome in the first round of the South Regional.

“I just didn’t want to lose in the first round again,” said Bailey, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds. “I know how bad it felt to lose to Princeton.”

This one, though, almost was worse.

And with No. 3-seeded Michigan set as their second-round opponent Sunday, unless there is a serious turn of events, it could get much uglier real fast.

“We kind of got tentative,” said Henderson, who had a game-high 26 points, and who had missed five of his first seven free throws before making two to put UCLA ahead for good with 25.2 seconds left. “For a while there, they wanted it more than us.”

Said Bailey: “We kind of had the first-game jitters, I think. I definitely was feeling how big this game was, that it could be my last. And we were tense at first. I’m just glad we got rid of it, and we got the win.”

Miami (18-10) committed 24 turnovers in the game, made only 37.7% of its shots and had its only consistent offensive player, Tim James, in foul trouble all game, which limited him to 12 points.

But the Bruins (23-8), who skipped two practices this week and the pregame shoot-around, started sluggishly against the Hurricanes’ aggressive zone defense.

“People didn’t think we had a chance, but we showed them that we were here to play,” James said.

UCLA’s 65 points tied its season low.

“Usually the problem with us is we can’t stop the other team and our offense is there,” Bailey said. “But we were playing pretty good defense tonight, and they just played great defense on us and we couldn’t get much going offensively.”

Eventually, with Kris Johnson experiencing his first bad game of the season (three points, five fouls), Henderson and Bailey put some organization into the chaos, put points on the board, and UCLA had a 49-39 lead with 11 minutes to play.

Then, the Bruins found themselves into a deep and dreamless nightmare once again.

The 11th-seeded Hurricanes took full advantage of the Bruin lull, finally made a few baskets in a row and grabbed a 62-59 lead with 1:55 left to play.

What was a talented team like UCLA doing in a place like this against an hard-working but hard-shooting Hurricane team?

“I was worried,” said Henderson, who made an inside basket and two huge free throws in the Bruins’ final, winning gasp. “I felt like we had a little help from upstairs on this one.”

Said Johnson: “Hats off to Miami--they made us dig deep for this one.”

Henderson admitted that, as he went to the line for his final two free throws, having missed five of his first seven attempts, he was nervous.

“But then Kris reminded me of [December] ’94 when I hit two against Kentucky [with 0.6 seconds left to win the Wooden Classic game], so that kind of relaxed me,” Henderson said.

Bailey made two free throws with 7.4 seconds left, and Miami guard Johnny Hemsley, who made three jump shots to bring the Hurricanes back, and Charles Wiseman missed three-pointers in the final 10 seconds to give the Bruins the victory.

This was a game in which both teams approached offensive basketball as if it were masonry--all brick and mortar, hammer and cement, and rarely involving a net.

In the first half, Miami put up 33 shots, and missed 22 of them, highlighted by Vernon Jennings’ spectacular, believe-it-or-not 0-for-7 performance, all coming from within five feet.

Meanwhile, UCLA was a cool 13 for 32 (40.6%), committed nine turnovers, and also missed six of its 10 free throws.

Miami’s Mario Bland was the recipient of most of the errant field-goal shooting--he dominated the boards, and after missing his first four free throws, finally started making some and led the Hurricanes to a 20-10 lead with eight minutes left in the half.

Overall, the smaller Hurricanes outrebounded UCLA, 44-32, including a 22-8 advantage of the offensive glass.

Bland finished with a team-high 18 points and eight rebounds, and after a desperation Hemsley three-pointer to beat the first-half buzzer, it was all tied, 32-32, at halftime.

Johnson had his first shot blocked, missed five of his six shots overall, and for the first time in more than a month, the second-leading UCLA scorer was a non-factor.

“You’re never going to see Kris Johnson have an off-night like that again,” UCLA Coach Steve Lavin said. “I think to get a victory with Kris having a game like that, you’ve got to feel lucky.”

So now comes Michigan, one of the hottest teams in the country.

“I hope you’ll see the best UCLA team you’ve seen all year against Michigan,” Bailey said.

It will need to be.