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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 20, 2003
No. 13 Princeton 43, No. 4 UCLA 41
March 14, 1996
Southeast Region
RCA Dome, Indianapolis
Guard Toby Bailey hit a 3-pointer, center Jelani McCoy followed with a dunk off a rebound and point guard Cameron Dollar grabbed a long rebound and whipped a pass to forward J.R. Henderson for a layup
"I wasn't overly concerned," said Tigers coach Pete Carril, who five days earlier had surprised his players by announcing his retirement after 30 years, 29 at the Ivy League school. "We had the type of team that could withstand something like that."
But against a team like UCLA?
On the grandest of stages?
"I'm thinking, 'Oh boy,' " Tigers forward Gabe Lewullis admitted. "That feeling was there that it's going to be a long night and it could be embarrassing."
The Tigers didn't panic.
On offense, they milked the shot clock. If they missed a shot, they essentially conceded the rebound and retreated back to prevent the Bruins from parlaying their speed into fastbreak dunks. Defensively, they used a 1-2-2 matchup zone to try to neutralize the Bruins' height advantage and force them to play at a slower tempo while working for an open shot.
"They get you lethargic," said former UCLA coach Jim Harrick, now at Georgia. "I had a young team; we were mostly freshmen and sophomores. We got lulled to sleep."
The Tigers closed the half on a quintessential Carril play. Center Steve Goodrich took a pass on the right edge of the free throw line and hit Lewullis with a pin-point accurate bounce pass for a back-door layup.
It was their first successful back-door play.
It would not be their last.
"The confidence manifested itself when we looked up and we're down just one point," Lewullis said. "We were right there. It was our type of game."
Down 31-29 nine minutes into the second half, the Bruins seemingly took control. Reserve forward Kris Johnson's jump hook in the lane punctuated a 12-3 run that allowed the Bruins to match their largest lead.
"That was a little bit more worrisome," Carril recalled.
In the stands, former UCLA star Reggie Miller and former coach Larry Brown, both with the hometown Pacers, were all smiles. On the UCLA bench, Harrick didn't feel the same way. He was fretting over what might have been.
Less than a minute before Johnson's basket, Bailey stole a pass intended for Goodrich in the low post and flung a three-quarter-court pass for forward Charles O'Bannon. He caught it in stride but botched the layup. Moments later, the high-rising O'Bannon couldn't dunk home on an alley-oop pass.
"O'Bannon missed two layups; wide-open layups," Harrick said. "I mean, this guy could jump to the moon. I'm saying, 'What is going on? This is crazy.' "
The Tigers weren't the best 3-point shooting team around and weren't shooting particularly well from beyond the arc on this night -- until they needed it the most. Guard Sydney Johnson, taking advantage of a screen from Goodrich that kept Bailey at bay, swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
The Bruins knew the Tigers were back in the game.
So did the Tigers.
"You have to believe you can win," said Carril, a consultant with the NBA Sacramento Kings. "That's the key."
With UCLA struggling and rushing its shots, Princeton came up with the game's biggest defensive play to tie it.
Forward Chris Doyal stole a pass intended for Kris Johnson at the top of the key, igniting a 3-on-1 fastbreak. Henderson hit Sydney Johnson for a layup, tying the game for just the fourth time.
"Hold on," yelled CBS announcer Gus Johnson.
As the Tigers on the bench jumped up and down, most of the fans in the announced crowd of 31,569 couldn't hold on to their seats. They too sensed the upset.
"They've picked up some loyal fans all of a sudden," CBS color commentator Quinn Buckner said.
Moments later Sydney Johnson mishandled a pass near the left baseline and Dollar pounced on the loose ball. Johnson, looking to stop the fastbreak, grabbed him and was called for an intentional foul. Dollar, a 67-percent free throw shooter, had two chances to break the tie.
"I missed them both," said Dollar, now an assistant at Washington.
UCLA still had the ball after the free throws, but Kris Johnson missed a runner in the lane. It was his first and only miss. The Tigers called timeout with 21 seconds remaining to set up a potential game-winning play.
"You know they're going to try to run a back door if they can get it," Buckner said.
In the huddle, Carril knew he couldn't run the same back-door play that worked so well at the end of the half. He called for a slight variation, relying a little more on misdirection.
"We had a lot of movement with guys going one direction and then we were going to come back toward me (on the right)," Lewullis said.
That's when he would cut back door. But this time, O'Bannon was in position to intercept any pass Goodrich might try.
"I went back out and cut again," Lewullis said.
O'Bannon had rushed back out to the wing too aggressively and was hopelessly out of position.
"That makes you bite," Dollar said. "I watch that tape more than any other tape. The spacing and the ingenuity of the play. That's just a hard play to guard. And they played on our athleticism, that we were going to get out and try to deny even more."
Kris Johnson tried to help out from the opposite side, but Lewullis took the bounce pass and got the ball up for the layup and a 43-41 lead. Carril pumped his left fist and then looked at the game clock.
"Kris missed it by an inch," Harrick said. "It was just one of those magical plays."
UCLA had one more chance for some magic of its own. Dollar took the inbounds and rushed into the frontcourt as the Bruins frantically called timeout with 1.3 seconds left.
The Bruins argued for more time and, after about a 7-minute delay that allowed the officials to watch a television replay, won their appeal. The officials added another 0.9 seconds.
Bailey got the ball on the left wing in front of the UCLA bench, pump faked to get Johnson in the air, and launched a 15-footer at the buzzer.
At the other end of the floor, Carril sat with his hand on top of his head.
"It looked like it had a chance to go in; it certainly did," Harrick said.
But Bailey, one of the heroes of the 1995 championship game win against Arkansas and this game's high scorer with 13 points, shot an air ball to end the game.
"There's not much you can say about a win like that," Carril said. "It happens."