Alexander: Feisty UC Riverside gives UCLA a wake-up call

LOS ANGELES — Pauley Pavilion still carries that aura, a sense of history and accomplishment that can be equal parts inspiring and oppressive, both for home and visitor.

UC Riverside men’s basketball coach Mike Magpayo paid respect to that aura, and that tradition, when he brought his team to Westwood to face UCLA on Thursday night.

Normally, he and his assistant coaches wear sweatsuits or polo shirts, as has become de rigueur among coaching staffs in the aftermath of the pandemic. But not this night. Magpayo dressed in a suit and tie.

“The suit is all about respecting and honoring Coach (John) Wooden, and Coach (Mick) Cronin and Coach (Darren) Savino and their staff,” he said.

Look better, coach better?

The Highlanders showed their respect to the venue, and the aura, and basketball itself, by going out and throwing a mighty scare into the Bruins. The teams were tied eight times and there were 16 lead changes before Dylan Andrews’ short jumper over Wil Tattersall with 3.4 seconds left allowed UCLA (5-2) to escape with a 66-65 victory, its longest-in-the-nation home winning streak intact at 29 but only by the slimmest of margins.

And that was only secured after another few moments of anxiety from the home side. UCR redshirt freshman Barrington Hargress had the ball at the top of the key on the final possession but couldn’t get off the last shot before the horn sounded.

Cronin, out sick and presumably watching from home, might have thrown an object or two at the TV during the course of the evening in frustration over the Bruins’ 3-point defense. Certainly, acting head coach Darren Savino didn’t have much good to say about it, because there wasn’t nearly enough of it. UCR made 14 of 32 3-point attempts, with returnee Kyle Owens and JC transfer Isaiah Moses making five apiece.

“I mean, credit to them,” Bruins guard Will McClendon said. “They did a great job of making us pay when we overhelped. It felt like they didn’t miss a shot.”

Said Savino: “They had us running around, scrambling, really difficult to guard. … We just lost guys (defensively). We overhelped and we stressed about being in gaps when someone gets isolated. But you can’t lunge and try to steal the ball and get nothing and leave a guy wide open for a three. And we just continued to do it.”

For those in the Inland Empire with long memories, Thursday night could have brought to mind UCR’s Christmas Miracle of 1988, maybe still the greatest moment in the school’s basketball history. The then-Division II Highlanders made 21 of 36 3-point tries, at the time an NCAA record, to knock off No. 4 Iowa, 110-92, in the championship game of the Chaminade Christmas Classic in Hawaii, the forerunner to the current Maui Classic.

Upsetting Iowa in ’88 drew national attention. Knocking off unranked UCLA in ’23 might not have shocked the country but would have been seismic throughout Southern California, where UCLA still casts a long shadow over the rest of the region’s Division I programs even 28 years after its last national championship.

Those banners in the rafters are part of the Pauley experience. UCR (3-5) went through something similar two weeks ago in a 77-52 loss at North Carolina, another of the cathedrals of college basketball. Magpayo said when he walked into the Dean Smith Center he “felt and saw the tradition of North Carolina, especially in the pregame, just seeing all the families there and how big a deal it was for them to take their kids to Chapel Hill.”

This one was more personal.

“This game means a lot to us in Southern California,” he said. “It means a lot to me. You know, my dad coached in Woodenisms. We have Wooden books all over the house.”

But when he walked into the building?

“I’m not looking,” he said. “I didn’t look at any banners. … This is my first time coaching in Pauley, and I felt it. I didn’t look, but I felt it.”

Magpayo also noted this: Even after losing four of their top five scorers from a 22-12 team, the Highlanders had more returning experience than UCLA, which has six players back from last year’s Elite Eight squad – four rotation players and two end-of-the-bench guys – and seven freshmen on the roster.

Two of those freshmen were hurt Thursday night. Forward Berke Buyuktuncel injured his left ankle late in the first half, went directly to the locker room and didn’t return. And guard Sebastian Mack, who played 33 minutes against UCR, appeared to aggravate a toe injury at the end of the game.

UCLA’s main contributors were two returning sophomores, Andrews with 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting and three 3-pointers while playing 38:36, and McClendon with 11 points (and three 3-pointers) and four rebounds in 23:35. Mack and Andrews give the Bruins a potentially dynamic backcourt, and Andrews’ game-winning shot was a boost to his confidence especially after a 2-for-15 performance against Gonzaga last week in Hawaii.

“You know, playing basketball, you’re going to have some good games and you’re going to have some bad games,” Andrews said. “You have to stay confident in yourself … just stay confident and just keep shooting, man.”

Now these programs go their separate ways. UCLA has a national TV game next Saturday at No. 18 Villanova, and a meeting with future Big Ten foe Ohio State the following Saturday in Atlanta. UCR has a home game Sunday afternoon against North Dakota, plays at Washington State on Wednesday when Magpayo faces his coaching mentor, Kyle Smith, and doesn’t play again until its crosstown matchup with Cal Baptist at home on Dec. 16.

But both sides will take a learning experience from this one.

“Every game is a learning message for both teams,” Andrews said. “So, I mean, I wouldn’t only say that they learned something from us, but we also learned something from them. At the end of the day, like (McClendon) just stressed on, anybody can beat or lose to anybody.

“I feel like that was just like a wake-up call for sure.”

I’m sure the Highlanders were happy to help, though they would have preferred the W.

“I’ve been hard on this team (in practice),” Magpayo said. “Now they got something to believe in. Now they got something to build off of, so let’s see if we can keep chopping away here and keep building.”

jalexander@scng.com