Despite the plethora of dark horrors for UCLA Wednesday night,
there was a glimmer of hope for its upcoming season: the inspired
play of senior guard Ray Young, especially in the first half.
Young scored the last 11 points for UCLA before halftime, and
finished the half with 13, going 6 for 9 from the floor in 13
minutes.
“Ray hit his first couple of shots there and that gave him
a lot of confidence,” said Branch West head coach Bob
Gottlieb. “That hurt us bad in the first half.”
This game was Young’s first college basketball game in 20
months after he redshirted last year in order to make sure the team
had senior leadership for this season.
However, he hardly took a vacation from basketball during the
hiatus. Young was at practice every day, showing up even earlier
than his teammates in order to keep working on his play.
“I’m always the first player at practice,”
Young said. “I work out everyday at 12 o’clock before
anyone gets there. I either work with my shooting coach or by
myself, because I want to stay on top of my game.”
The Bruins will need Young to continue the hot shooting if they
want to make a run at the Pac-10 and NCAA titles.
Opposing defenses will likely try to clamp down on senior Jason
Kapono through double-teams and other defensive schemes, which
means that Young will likely get plenty of opportunities for shot
attempts this season.
“He’s spent a lot of quality time practicing his
shooting, because he needs to come in here and have a great
season,” Kapono said.
Young finished the game with 15 points, going 7 for 13 from the
field with one rebound and one assist. He was, for the most part,
silenced in the second half, playing just 10 minutes as the Branch
West defense tightened up on him.
“He had a great first half, but didn’t take over in
the second half,” said Branch West forward Nate Pondexter,
who was matched up against Young for most of the game. “He
should have taken over the game.”
Young agreed with Pondexter’s assessment. After the game,
Young was angry that he wasn’t able to lead the Bruins to a
victory.
“This is definitely a game I’ll forget,” Young
said. “I’ll make sure we have some real competitive
practices now. We need to regroup ourselves because this is
downright embarrassing.”