FOGG-HORNE BEG, MOURN

Tale o’ the Cock.

Fogg-Horne, Leg up:  Flogged, torn, by Fogg, Horne, UCLA lays an egg, getting cold-cocked 77-63 in their own roost by Arizona, as Wildcats Kyle Fogg, Jamelle Horne — and Derrick Williams — scramble the Bruins with an early wake-up call

Cock-a-doodle-don’t.

The momentum of a three-game winning streak and a 1-and-0 start in the Pac-10 is now gone, thanks to a cold spell that blew threw Pauley Pavilion early Saturday morning.  The 10am start seemed to catch the Bruins still sleeping, unable to match their fine shooting effort of Thursday afternoon.  In that game, they shot 83% in the 1st Half;  In this one, they shot 21% in the 1st Half.

Between not being able to shoot, and not being able to Rebound, and not being able to defend the paint or the perimeter, the Bruins fell to 1-1 in the Pac, with a demoralizing 77-63 loss to Arizona.  U of A got beat in Galen this week, and they were 6-7 coming in, just like UCLA.  But Arizona apparently played their best game of the year on Saturday, and throttled the Bruins, taking a big lead in the 1st Half, and never letting them back in.

Everything went wrong for UCLA in the 1st Half:  They went 0-8 from behind the arc, they went 5 minutes without scoring a point, they had only 2 field goals in 12 minutes, they got outrebounded 27-15, and their leading scorer Malcolm Lee went 0-6 from the floor.  Meanwhile, Freshman Derrick Williams was dominating the paint and the glass for Arizona, while Kyle Fogg and Jamelle Horne dominated everywhere else.  Fogg scored a career-high 25 (and had 3 Blocks and a Steal), while Horne added 17 and Williams got 16 with 9 Boards.   Those three amigos made up for the lackluster performance of Wildcat Star Point Guard Nic Wise, who could muster only 2 hoops while being smothered by Lee.  Ben Howland put his Shooting Guard Lee on Point Guard Wise for two reasons:  Lee is his best defender, and he wanted that expertise applied directly against Wise, and Point Guard Jerime Anderson was suffering from a re-injured groin, and was slower than usual (which IS saying something).

So Wise was quiet, but Fogg and Horne took advantage of THEIR defenders, to go ballastic.  The Wildcats took a 35-20 lead into Intermission, and built it to 20 in the 2nd Half.  The Bruins, who never QUIT under Howland, came back a little, cutting it to 11, but couldn’t get the stops necessary to mount a complete comeback.  Their interior Defense, and “help” defense were exposed all night, and when Arizona couldn’t get a lay-up, Fogg or Horne would hit nothing but net from outside.

Anderson played only 25 minutes, supposedly due to the injury.  Tyler Honeycutt gained most of those minutes, and slammed two dunks, but also made his share of Freshman mistakes.  Anderson, meanwhile, was one of the only Bruins to make more shots than he missed, going 3-4, and he also had 4 Assists to only 1 Turnover.  But he was a liability on Defense, getting beat too often (and he had very little help inside).  And speaking of liabilities, Nikola Dragovic did NOT build on his impressive 23-point performance against ASU.  Reeves Nelson, Michael Roll, and James Keefe were their usual, workmanlike selves, but the athleticism of Fogg and Horne, and the strength of Williams, were way too much for the Bruins to handle.

Of course, if they had shot better in the 1st Half than 21% from the floor, like they did in the 2nd half (when they outscored Arizona and more than doubled their own 1st Half output), they never would have fallen down by 20.  With only Nelson underneath, the Bruins NEED Roll, Drago AND Lee to be hot from outside, or they will not be able to keep their heads above water in the Pac-10.  Roll and Drago have shown that they can do it on an ongoing basis, and if Lee can’t he can certainly start to penetrate more, which would still keep the Bruins in games.  But when any of the three of them have really OFF games, the opponents will be able to capitalize.

Up next for UCLA are Cal and Stanford, on the Road, then sc at Pauley.  And pathetically, only the Stanford game should be deemed winnable at this point.  The Bruins will need to play two of their best three halves of the year to beat sc, and that means not letting Alex Stephenson do to them what Derrick Williams did, and not letting Mike Gerrity do to them what Fogg and Horne did.  It doesn’t look good, and if the Bruins lose, don’t come here looking for a recap — I might just react like it never even took place.