Hicks Continues to Make His Mark

UCLA’s Skip Hicks had 24 carries for 116 yards and a touchdown against Washington State, becoming the first back to rush for more than 100 yards against the Cougars this season.

He also had four receptions for 59 yards and two touchdowns, giving him 17 touchdowns this season and tying him with J.J. Stokes and Gaston Green for the school record.

Near game’s end, a call went from Marc Dellins, UCLA’s sports information director, to the Bruin sideline, letting Jon Kaplan, the program’s operations assistant, know that Hicks had tied a school mark and could also break one with another touchdown. The idea was to pass the word on to Coach Bob Toledo and offensive coordinator Al Borges.

Hicks came back into the game on the final UCLA drive, but was double-covered on a second-down play and Cade McNown’s pass went to tight end Mike Grieb for a 16-yard touchdown with 49 seconds to play.

No matter. Hicks gave the fans in the end zone a thumbs up. “I wanted to thank them for supporting me,” he said.

For the season, he has 870 rushing yards, best of his career.

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Washington State’s bowl hopes are hanging by a thread. The Cougars (5-4, 3-3) are at Stanford next week before playing host to Washington. One victory is essential to qualify for a bowl, and two are probably needed.

“We have two choices: win our final two games and go to Hawaii for Christmas, or end 5-6 as quitters,” quarterback Ryan Leaf said. “And that’s not what we intend to do.”

The Pacific 10 Conference’s fourth-place team goes to the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu.

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UCLA’s Bjorn Merten kicked a 20-yard field goal and has made 11 of 15 attempts. He was wide to the right on a 53-yard effort to end the first half. . . . Washington State was plainly picking on Bruin cornerback Andy Colbert, who knocked away six passes and finally intercepted one with two seconds to play.