BRUINS GET SCARE, OVERCOME BAD CASE OF HICK-UPS

Boo!

UCLA erases double-digit deficit and flattens Bakersfield, putting game-and-a-half hiccup in Howland’s run of success behind them

It took 2 exhibitions and 65 minutes of the season for UCLA to remember that they are UCLA.

On Friday night, the Bruins slowly bounced back from their depressing Opening Night, double-overtime loss, by coming from behind to beat Cal State Bakersfield, 75-64.  The Roadrunners thoroughly outplayed the Bruins for the first 15 minutes, outshooting, outhustling, and out-executing the Bruins in every way imaginable.  Bakersfield built a 31-20 lead, while the Bruins continued to miss 3-pointers and turn the ball over too much.

Playing without Nikola Dragovic, who got arrested for Felony Assault (he was CLEARED last time he was accused, so let’s withhold judgment), the Bruins started the game playing just as poorly as they did against CSUF.  Jerime Anderson picked up two early fouls, which brought Mustafa Abdul-Hamid into the game, but he wasn’t the problem.  Regardless of who was in, the Bruins allowed the ‘Runners to keep penetrating to the hoop, and on the other end, UCLA couldn’t take advantage, of a short, chaotic zone Defense that had glaring holes.  But with about 5 minutes to go in the first half, the light finally came on for the Bruins (sort of like it did for the UCLA FOOTBALL Offense late in the Oregon State game).

The Bruins finally settled down, and started exploiting their advantages, especially their length advantage.  They started to get the ball inside (instead of bricking 3’s), and Drew Gordon made it pay off.  In addition to his career-high 3 Blocks on the Defensive end, Gordon really excelled against the Roadrunners’ front line on Offense, scoring a career-high 19 Points on a series of dunks and one-handed mini-hooks.  Reeves Nelson repeated his own success of game 1, again being a FORCE in the paint.  Nelson scored 8 and grabbed 6 more Boards.  Surprise-Starter James Keefe stepped it up a bit, scoring 10, getting some big put-backs when the game was still close.  The Bruins used a 10-0 run at the end of the first half to make it 35-35 at Halftime.

The Bruins came out of the locker room and immediately continued the onslaught, making it an 18-1 run overall.  The Bruins played better Defense, shot the ball better, and figured out how to find the open man with the ball.  The Bakersfield trapping zone was flawed, and presented open guys underneath all night long — It just took Howland a while to get his players to exploit it.  When they did, they went on a 30-point switch, from being down by 11 to being up by 19.  Howland emptied the bench at the end, allowing the Roadrunners a chance to make the final score respectable. 

Who would have thought that Bobo Morgan would get in ONLY when the bench is cleared?  Even Brendan Lane and Mike Moser got some quality minutes, (way) ahead of Morgan.  When Morgan DID come in, he had a fantastic Blocked Shot (as did Gordon earlier, on a failed dunk attempt).

Malcolm Lee supplied the other highlight play, with a driving reverse lay-up late in the game.  The move exhibited the ability that Bruin fans have been counting on but haven’t seen too much this season.  Lee scored 10, on inconsistent shooting, including some shots that missed by miles.  But fortunately, all 5 Starters scored in double-figures, as Michael Roll added 12 and Jerime Anderson had 10.

Roll and Anderson both started slowly, but both came around nicely.  Roll finally started to hit his shots, and Anderson actually made a driving lay-up, a three-pointer, and a nice two-point jumper after passing up a longer shot and moving in a little closer before popping.  No doubt Anderson played better than he did against Fullerton.  He still shows some glaring weaknesses, blowing an unguarded lay-up and turning the ball over 4 times, including getting the ball stripped right away from his dribble, but he played much better than last week.  With Anderson coming off a 5-week injury layoff, each tiny improvement is good news, and bodes well for the future.  And by the way, there certainly doesn’t seem to be any lack of effort or caring on his part, so hopefully, fans will be supportive while he tries to find his way.

The way Gordon and Nelson — and even Keefe — were able to score inside, it is possible that Anderson will be able to guide an effective Offense, without having to be a great shooter this season.

Here is one more batch of UCLA Cheer photos (from the most recent Football game), to hold you until new ones from today’s ASU game are ready for publication.  Enjoy.   

#4 North Carolina lost to Syracuse, who lost to a Div.ll school two weeks ago.  In other words, Bruin fans, don’t get too worried yet.

Baron Davis led the Clippers to a big win against the highly-ranked Denver Nuggets Friday night.

With Don McLean on assignment, MITCHELL BUTLER did color commentary on TV.  He was ROOTING more than announcing, but wasn’t horrible to listen to.

Michael Roll led UCLA with 6 Assists.  He got passes around defenders, into the post.

The Bruins shot 59%… quite an improvement over the last game’s 31%.

SEVEN different Bruins EACH committed TWO or more Turnovers.

Speaking of Refs, the Bruins shot only 50% from the line again (7-14).  NOT acceptable.

Point Guard Jerime Anderson has just GOT to get more than ONE Assist in 28 minutes of play.

And the Bruins need to shoot better from 3, as 4-13 won’t get it done (as Stu Lantz would say [and DOES say, over and over]).

Besides his 3 Blocks and 19 Points on 8-10 shooting, Drew Gordon also got 6 Boards, an Assist, a Steal, and hit ALL THREE of his Free Throws.

Attendance: 6782.  Wonder if any of the members of the Dance Team were in that number?

At least they should be well-rested for Saturday.

Didn’t see the Bakersfield girls.  Probably a good thing.

Hey… Does anyone know if UCLA Spirit Squadmembers still sign posters in the Bookstore prior to Home Basketball games?

The Pauley renovation sketches look great, but the talk of ticket price increases is scaring lots of long-time fans.

Ohhh.  I almost forgot — That sideline reporter, Courtney Jones, I think, was horrible. OMFG!  She makes Jerime Anderson look like a “seasoned veteran” Senior.

Last one for today.  Glad the wily Bruins could defeat the Roadrunners without calling ACME.

 

Comments

2 responses to “BRUINS GET SCARE, OVERCOME BAD CASE OF HICK-UPS”

  1. RR Avatar

    Scary game last night in the first half. Luckily the Bruins finally realized what they have and took advantage of their advantage ( something Stu Lantz also says ;D ), pounded it on the inside and let Gordon, Keefe, and all the good freshman that have size(mainly Nelson) take over. Good to see their heads finally get in the game, I was still shaky about the back court though. Granted and giving Anderson the benefit of a doubt he is coming off an injury he might just have some rust to shake off, but he, Lee, and Roll can’t keep playing like this especially once KU and the Pac-10 season comes around. Tyler Honeycutt, plz get better soon. I’m so excited for Honeycutt, and I can definitely see him having T-Mac type of potential talent wise… apparently too much though because it gets down all the way to the back problems, but hopefully he’ll be good to go around December with no delays.

    As for the Clippers, while I’m completely against Ralph and Mike’s suspension by Fox… I gotta admit I enjoyed listening to Eaves and Donny Mac over them because Ralph and Mike bore me to death.

  2. RR Avatar

    btw, can we start a KKK club of our own? or some kind of tribute to the three Katies on the squad? I’m just completely infatuated with all three of them in particular :X