KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Guard,
Billy Knight, tries to get the ball away from a
Pepperdine defender, in the Bruins’ loss to the Waves,
Wednesday.
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Poor Jason Kapono.
He tried, he really did.
But no matter how rigorously the junior forward flailed his arms
in front of a ballhandler attempting to cause a turnover, no matter
how much he tried to muscle for inside position and no matter how
many cuts he made to free himself, he couldn’t prevent his
team from losing to Pepperdine Wednesday night.
With most of its players lacking any spirit until the waning
minutes of the 85-76 loss, the No. 10 UCLA men’s basketball
squad (2-2) was disrobed and exposed against a Wave team (2-1)
that, at best, could be described as mediocre.
“Guys just don’t want to play defense,” said
Kapono, who scored a game-high 28 points and grabbed seven
rebounds. “Some of it has to do with skills, but our mindset
isn’t there right now.
As was the case in the loss to Ball State in the semifinal of
the Maui Invitational, UCLA couldn’t contain its
opponents’ dribble penetration. The Bruins allowed forward
“Colonel” Jimmy Miggins and guard Craig Lewis to score
20 and 18 points, respectively.
“Across the board defensively, we didn’t play any
phase of the game well,” UCLA head coach Steve Lavin
said.
But this time, the Bruins’ defensive frailties
weren’t a result of poor preparation. In the week leading up
to the game, the squad spent a significant portion of practice time
working on defending its basket.
The problem, UCLA admitted, was effort.
Pepperdine 85
UCLA 76
“It’s a slap in the face after spending all that
time (in practice following the Ball State loss) and not coming out
in play,” Kapono said. “We knew we had to play better
defense. We worked on our skills, our fundamentals. Name it all, we
did it in practice, but in the game, we didn’t.”
Kapono, the Lavin-style diplomat that he is, included himself
among those to blame. In truth, however, he was the main reason the
Bruins were even in the game.
During the last four minutes of first half, Kapono hit four
three- pointers for 12 of his 16 points before the break to give
his team a 36-33 advantage entering halftime. And in the second
half, when he was only able to launch one three-point attempt, he
overcame his obvious deficiency in quickness and willed his way
inside.
Even on the defensive end, he made an effort, which was more
than what most of his teammates gave ““ especially in the
second half, by which time they clearly abandoned their pregame
plan to play defense.
Pepperdine guards slashed into the lane as they pleased, causing
UCLA’s defensive walls to collapse and making the ball touch
the net at a disturbing rate.
“Defensively, we were horrendous,” said plodding
UCLA senior center Dan Gadzuric, who was rarely in the paint when
he had to be. “We weren’t being smart. We made the same
mistakes. They kept going to the middle. It’s
miscommunication. We were just going through the
motions.”
Yet, the game remained close due to Waves’ ineptitude.
Bruin senior forward Matt Barnes had an opportunity to level the
score at 78 when he stepped to the free-throw line with 36 seconds
remaining in the contest, but missed one of his two attempts.
Senior guard Billy Knight could have brought the Bruins to
within one nine seconds later, but he too, made only one of
two.
In all, UCLA converted only 14 of its 25 free throws.
The Bruins’ shooting from the floor was just as
unimpressive, as UCLA made a mere 41.2 percent of its field
goals.
Other than the performance of Kapono and perhaps that of Knight,
who had 21 points but was a hole on defense, there were few
positive notes for UCLA.
“UCLA’s got a long way to go if they want to be
national champions and compete in the Pac-10,” Pepperdine
head coach Paul Westphal said. “Coach Lavin has a way of
always getting his players to play their best in big games.
I’m sure he’ll do that again this year.”