KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff TJ
Cummings puts all of his effort into keeping the ball in
play during a 98-88 UCLA victory over Oregon on Saturday. UCLA
moved into a tie for second in the Pac-10. UCLA 98
Oregon 88
By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
With all the ammunition on display Saturday at Pauley Pavilion,
it was inevitable that guns would be blazing.
In the game that featured the Pac-10’s leading scorer and
whistle-happy referees, it was UCLA that took aim last.
Recovering from a 48-42 halftime deficit after only giving up 40
points total in Thursday’s contest against Oregon State, the
Bruins (12-5, 6-1 Pac-10) bagged the Ducks (11-6, 2-5) for a 98-88
victory before 6,957 fans to claim a share of second place in the
conference.
“We have got to take things one game at a time,”
said junior forward Matt Barnes, who scored a career-high 26 points
on 9-of-11 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. “We got
a lot out of our press. Tonight was my night.”
The impact of the press was felt after halftime. UCLA attempted
to slow and disrupt the run-and-gun Duck offense, keying on senior
forward Bryan Bracey and junior guard Frederick Jones. Bracey, who
came into Saturday leading the conference in scoring at 19.3 points
per game, notched 14 of his 20 points in the first half. Meanwhile,
Jones was near perfect in the game’s first 20 minutes. He was
3 for 4 from the field, including 2 for 2 from beyond the arc, and
converting all four free throw attempts. He also dropped 12 of his
team-high 22 points before the bell to give Oregon the advantage
going into the break.
UCLA head coach Steve Lavin was not content with the
team’s first half performance.
“I was disappointed by our defensive effort in the first
half,” he said. The Bruins allowed the Ducks to shoot 57
percent in the first half and 42 percent from three-point range.
“Before the game, we talked about not letting Jones and
Bracey get into an offensive rhythm early, but we did a good job of
shutting things off in the second half.”
In addition, the officiating crew tabbed the Bruins for 14 of
their 26 team fouls in the first half. The Ducks went 17 of 19 from
the charity stripe compared to the Bruins’ 4 of 12.
A seesaw battle early on, it wasn’t until there was less
than five minutes left in the first half that Oregon made a run.
With the game knotted at 33, the Ducks rattled off 10 unanswered
points. With 50 seconds left, reserve center Jay Anderson converted
a three-point play to give Oregon its biggest lead at 48-36.
But with the Bruins on the ropes, senior guard Earl Watson hit
consecutive three pointers with less than 35 seconds left to cut
the lead to 48-42 and provide the momentum UCLA needed to turn the
game around.
“I thought we did a good job of executing our gameplan in
the first half,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
“But they upped their intensity after halftime, the crowd got
into the game and we didn’t attack offensively. But I think
(the latter) had to do with the matchups on the floor.”
With Duck starting center Flo Hartenstein notching three first
half fouls and reserve Chris Christoffersen getting two, UCLA
viciously attacked with the press, stepping to the challenge on
defense against the conference’s second best offense (82.6
points per game).
Falling behind by 10 points a minute into the second frame,
Barnes converted a three-point play off a putback and handed
Christoffersen his third foul. While UCLA center Dan Gadzuric
picked up his fourth foul with 16:04 left in the game ““
rejecting a ferocious one-handed jam attempt by Oregon’s
Jones ““ the Bruins stuck with the full-court press.
With UCLA chipping away at the Ducks’ lead, sophomore
Jason Kapono began to find his rhythm. Recovering from a bruised
wrist suffered in a nasty fall Thursday against the Beavers, the
Bruins’ leading scorer connected on a long-range bomb at
15:13 to close Oregon’s lead to 57-56. Then Barnes stepped
into the Oregon passing lanes for a steal and fast break
opportunity. A one-handed windmill dunk later, UCLA took control of
the score (58-57) for the first time in the second half. The crowd
was in a frenzy.
“The crowd started getting into it,” Barnes said of
the Bruins’ second-half surge. “We started to feed off
of that and the press kept working. Playing tough defense helps
create easy offense.”
Lavin agreed. “I thought our defensive pressure in the
second half, in terms of getting stops and then buckets, allows us
to continue with the press,” he said. “That’s
when we are most lethal.”
After an Oregon timeout, junior guard Anthony Norwood tickled
the twine from beyond the three-point line to give the Ducks a
two-point advantage. But UCLA grabbed the lead for good at 10:38 on
a Kapono baseline layin that turned into a three-point play to push
the Bruins ahead 67-65. Oregon’s Christoffersen picked up his
fourth foul on the play. He fouled out a minute and a half later
with 15 points and seven rebounds.
With UCLA pushing the lead to 77-65, the Ducks stuck their foot
in the door for one last stand. A Jones three-pointer with 4:33
left in the ballgame got the Ducks within 82-77. But the Bruins
held Oregon to 40 percent shooting in the second half, while
hitting 52 percent themselves after halftime.
A Ray Young double-clutch fast break jam with a little more than
a minute to go gave the Bruins their largest lead at 95-80. The
Bruins’ 21- for-26 performance from the free-throw line in
the second half gave them a 10-point win and a sweep of the Oregon
schools.
“We still have to work on late-game situations and putting
teams away,” Lavin said, “but I was pleased at how we
took care of the ball and valued the possession of the ball this
weekend.”
UCLA takes to the open road this week for games up in Northern
California. The Bruins travel to Haas Pavilion in Berkeley Thursday
to square off against the California Golden Bears, who have won
their last 13 games at home. They follow up by invading Maples
Pavilion in Palo Alto to take a crack at nationally top-ranked and
undefeated Stanford. Last year the Bruins had a stunning 94-93
overtime upset of the then-No. 1 Cardinal on March 2.
“I feel good,” Watson said of his health and of the
Bruins’ 6-1 conference mark. “But Stanford is still up
there ahead of us. We have that chance next week and know we need
to stay focused.”