St. John's falls in Lavin's return to UCLA

LOS ANGELES - Although Saturday's coast-to-coast trip to UCLA did not carry quite the same weight as intense Big East contests on St. John's recent and upcoming schedule, Dwight Hardy was well aware what it meant to his coach.

Steve Lavin was returning to Westwood for the first time since he coached UCLA from 1996-2003, and Hardy did what he could in the 66-59 loss, scoring 32 points and making his own coast-to-coast trip for a layup with 2:06 left to get the Red Storm within 62-59.

"The whole trip, [Lavin] was cool, calm, collected," Hardy said. "We wanted to win this for him."

Reeves Nelson hit a three-pointer with 35 seconds left to give the Bruins (16-7) extra cushion and the Red Storm (13-9) missed its final five shots and had one turnover in the final two minutes to leave Lavin with a loss in his first time at Pauley Pavilion since an 83-72 victory over Washington on March 8, 2003.

Lavin was 145-78 in his seven seasons as coach at UCLA, including six consecutive Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament appearances. But he was fired after going 10-19 in 2003.

"I've always felt home at Pauley," said Lavin, who got a lukewarm pregame reception when announced with his team. "The 12 years I spent here [five as an assistant], there's always friendly places, friendly faces. It's surreal, walking into the opposing locker room. Coach [Gene] Keady reminded me that we're at the other end [not in the home locker room].

"Once the game started, I lost myself in competition. I was so focused, we've got a tough UCLA team, then we've got a very tough game against UConn. You're trying to find a way to get a win."

The final two minutes were intense. Following Hardy's layup to make it 62-59, UCLA's Lazeric Jones was called for charging. Storm forward Justin Brownlee then tried to take forward Joshua Smith off the dribble, but Brownlee lost his dribble and turned the ball over.

Malcolm Lee was fouled, missed two free throws, but Nelson got an offensive rebound, and the Bruins ran off 24 seconds before Tyler Honeycutt missed a three-pointer.

That was the third time late in the second half that the Red Storm failed to get a rebound off a missed free throw.

"The key to this game was the missed step-ins off the free throws," Lavin said. "They were missing their free throws and we didn't capitalize. One time it was three [point lead] and they missed, another time they were up five and they missed."

With 1:02 to go, Brownlee missed a fast-break layup, got the loose ball, then was blocked underneath his own basket.

Nelson, who had 12 points and 17 rebounds, hit his big three with 35 seconds left.

Hardy missed two three-point tries and D.J. Kennedy missed one on St. John's final two possessions.

Hardy was the only Storm player in double figures and although the Storm had only 10 turnovers to UCLA's 22, the Bruins won the rebounding battle, 40-28.

Smith had 19 points and Lee 15 for UCLA, which came back from a 13-4 deficit to lead 29-26 at halftime.

Lavin coached several future NBA players during his UCLA tenure, including Matt Barnes of the Lakers, who was courtside Saturday. "It brought back a lot of memories," Barnes said. "College was the best time of my life. Seeing him on the sidelines was definitely a good thing."