Northern Arizona 67, UCLA 63
Wednesday December 18, 2002By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) UCLA is back in difficult territory just days before the Bruins have to play No. 19 Kansas in a nationally televised game.
They got beat 67-63 Tuesday night by Northern Arizona to fall under .500 for the second time this season.
The Bruins (2-3) opened the season with a stunning 86-81 overtime loss to San Diego, then four days later lost to No. 3 Duke 84-73 on national television.
``This was the same thing we did against San Diego,'' guard Ryan Walcott said. ``We have to learn that teams want to beat UCLA. They just out-competed us.''
The Bruins thought they had begun turning things around, winning their last two games by an average of 30 points. They were 20{-point favorites to beat the Lumberjacks.
``It's always tough when you think you can beat a team or you think your team is a lot more qualified and better overall,'' guard Ray Young said. ``We didn't prove that on the court and that's all that matters.''
Northern Arizona hit nine 3-pointers in the second half and Ryan McDade had 22 points and 12 rebounds as the Lumberjacks won their fifth in a row since losing to No. 1 Arizona by 36 points last month.
``It's the biggest win in the history of the university because we beat a good opponent on their own floor,'' coach Mike Adras said. ``But it does nothing for us in terms of the NCAA (tournament). We can celebrate, but we need to win the Big Sky.''
Northern Arizona improved to 6-2 for the first time since the 1985-86 season with its first victory over a Pac-10 team since 1998-99.
``The win is not stunning to us,'' McDade said. ``We have a lot of confidence.''
Aaron Bond added 14 points, Kelly Golob had 13 points and Kyle Feuerbach had 12 points, including four 3-pointers in a row in the second half for the Lumberjacks.
T.J. Cummings scored 16 points and Dijon Thompson added 14 points for the Bruins, who led by 10 points in the first half.
Northern Arizona trailed 32-26 at halftime, but stunned the Bruins by hitting three consecutive 3-pointers to open the second half.
After UCLA tied the game at 44 on an inside basket by Andre Patterson with 12:48 remaining, the Bruins never led again.
``They were able to negate our size advantage by knocking down threes and getting the ball inside,'' said UCLA coach Steve Lavin, who was the target of derisive shouts by fans, one of whom yelled, ``Merry Christmas, Lavin!''
``It was discouraging because we thought we'd made a little bit of progress over last week, but we just took a step backward.''
The Lumberjacks, who shot 69 percent from 3-point range in the second half, kept firing away without any hands in their faces. Bond hit a 3-pointer, then Feuerbach hit four consecutive 3-pointers to give Northern Arizona its largest lead 60-52 with 5:21 remaining.
Cummings scored eight of UCLA's final 13 points, including a tip-in of Jason Kapono's 3-pointer that bounced off the rim, to get the Bruins to 64-63 with 34 seconds left.
``At the five-minute mark, I tried to put everything I had into the game,'' Cummings said. ``I was really working to get touches in the paint. It just wasn't enough.''
After Bond hit two free throws for a 66-63 lead, Kapono missed a 3-pointer.
``I'd take that 20 more times,'' Kapono said. ``It's upsetting that I missed it. There was a lot of things we could have done better not to be in that position.''
McDade grabbed the rebound and got fouled by Thompson with 2.8 seconds left. He made the first and missed the second to close out the victory.
``We were all over Kapono and when he got a catch, we put hands in his face,'' McDade said of holding the UCLA star to 12 points on 4 of 10 shooting.
The Lumberjacks had only nine healthy players available and three of them did all the scoring in the first half. Northern Arizona controlled the boards 29-25 and its 19 turnovers were three more than UCLA.
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