There’s plenty of blame to go around for last
night’s deflating 80-75 loss to USC.
First and foremost has to be Steve Lavin, whose game plan and
substitutions flat-out failed against a Trojan team that was ready
for anything.
Despite a lack of an inside presence, 7-foot center Michael Fey
didn’t see a minute of action, and neither did shooting guard
Jon Crispin even though the Bruins (4-6, 2-1 Pac-10) were ice-cold
from the floor.
Also, guard Ray Young, who had seven points in the first half,
only saw six minutes of action in the second half. That was just
one more than Josiah Johnson, who finished with no points and three
fouls.
“I just go into the game and take whatever time I
get,” Young said. “It’s not my
decision.”
Lavin seems to be finally coming to the realization that his job
is in severe jeopardy, as it was terrible losses, specifically to
USC, that ended Bob Toledo’s UCLA career.
“With a climate like that surrounding UCLA basketball,
when you lose games people expect a change,” Lavin said after
last night’s game.
But Lavin isn’t the only one to blame for last
night’s loss to USC (6-4, 2-1 Pac-10). Senior Jason Kapono
deserves some heat as well, as he followed up his 44-point game at
Washington State with one of the worst games of his Bruin
career.
He shot just 4-15 from the field, and 2-9 from beyond the arc en
route to a paltry 10 points. Kapono even had a rare airball in the
second half.
“It was tough,” he said. “These teams know
what I did in previous games and they make sure to stop
it.”
Even after Lavin and Kapono, there is still plenty of blame
left.
After all, Kapono wasn’t the only one with a cold hand
last night. As a team, the Bruins shot just 41.3 percent, and were
4-26 (15.4 percent) in three-point attempts.
Point guard Ryan Walcott was 1-6 from downtown, forward Dijon
Thompson was 0-4, and guard Ray Young was 0-3.
“They gave us a lot of open threes, and we didn’t
make them,” Lavin said. “But we shouldn’t be
taking 26 three-pointers.”
The Bruins actually were up 40-38 at half-time, using a 16-2 run
and crisp ball-handing to propel them to the lead.
But the 12,736 fans at Pauley Pavilion, UCLA’s largest
crowd of the season, witnessed the Bruins’ undoing in the
second half.
UCLA turned the ball over nine times in the frame, and USC
continuously capitalized on the Bruin miscues in order to build an
63-52 lead with under 10 minutes remaining.
USC guard Desmon Farmer hit three three-pointers in the second
half on way to a game-high 25 points. Guard Errick Craven added 24
points, and his brother Derrick Craven had 10.
All shot above 50 percent for the game.
“We played with poise and confidence,” USC coach
Henry Bibby said. “Our players really wanted to win. They
have a lot of character.”
UCLA cut the Trojans’ lead to two with three minutes
remaining, but Derrick Craven scored a quick six points to seal the
win for USC.
“They made the plays when they needed to make them,”
Kapono said. “They definitely got the better end of a scrappy
game.”
Despite the cold shooting, UCLA did have five players who scored
in double figures.
Besides Kapono’s 10 points, guard Cedric Bozeman and
forward Andre Patterson each had 11, center T.J. Cummings had 13,
and Thompson had a team-high 16 points.
Walcott also became the first UCLA player to have more than
eight assists this season, finishing with 11.
“I was just trying to be a point guard,” Walcott
said.
This was USC’s first win at Pauley Pavilion in their last
ten tries.
It drops UCLA into a third place tie with USC in the conference,
pending the outcome of tomorrow night’s Pac-10 games.