Perhaps Arizona State coach Rob Evans best described the current
state of UCLA basketball after his team’s 75-64 win over the
Bruins.
“We don’t get excited about beating UCLA
anymore,” Evans said. “It’s the same as beating
Washington State.”
Last night’s loss to ASU (12-4, 4-1 Pac-10) was deja vu
all over again for the Bruins ““ just like against Duke,
Kansas and St. Johns, the game was over at halftime.
The theme was redundant in the locker room after the game.
“It’s been the same story all year,” said
guard Ray Young. “We need to put together 40
minutes.”
“We have to play for 40 minutes, not just 20,” said
guard Ryan Walcott.
“We can’t sustain a game for 40 minutes,” said
guard Cedric Bozeman.
Down 40-22 at halftime, UCLA made just eight field goals in the
first half. And their only three-pointer came from Josiah Johnson,
only the fourth of his career.
The team’s usual high scorers ““ forwards Jason
Kapono and Dijon Thompson and center T.J. Cummings ““ all had
just two points at the break.
Their full-court press defense was unenergetic and
heartless.
And the team committed 15 fouls and 11 turnovers in the first
half alone ““ both numbers are the equivalent of a whole games
worth for better college basketball teams.
“We were contagiously lackadaisical in the first
half,” Cummings said.
With 10 minutes to go in the game, the Bruins finally came to
life.
The Bruins (4-8, 2-2 Pac-10) were down 60-42 when Cummings hit a
17-foot jumper, followed by a 15-footer from Thompson to bring the
Bruins within 14.
Then the Bruins started to bring some energy into their press,
forcing 15 second-half turnovers.
However, mistakes on the offensive end of the floor cost them a
chance to come all the way back.
With the ASU lead cut to nine, Young got a steal off of a
Patterson-missed free throw but put up an quick errant shot instead
of resetting the offense.
“I wasn’t as balanced as I should have been,”
Young said.
The Bruins stayed resilient, playing stifling defense and
hitting big shots, including a three-pointer from Thompson with
4:13 left that cut the Sun Devil lead to eight.
But, as in late-game runs made against Kansas and Duke, the UCLA
shot itself in the foot with costly turnovers and missed
open-looks.
Kapono missed two open shots in the last four minutes, including
a three-pointer that would have cut the lead to three.
And forward Andre Patterson lost an inbounds pass from Bozeman
when the Bruins were down by six.
“We had three straight possessions where we were down by
six and came up empty,” UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said.
“And that was all she wrote.”
In a pattern that has continued all season, the Bruins were
clearly apathetic in the locker room, laughing and joking with
one-another after the game.
No player looked angry about UCLA’s sixth home loss this
season, which ties the Bruin record for the most in Pauley Pavilion
history.
“Like the whole season, we have to put it behind
us,” Cummings said. “We can’t be
upset.”
“We can’t dwell on this loss,” Bozeman
added.
Each player made it clear that if they play the whole game like
they did the last 10 minutes, they will undoubtedly be more
competitive against quality Pac-10 opponents.
But the rhetoric has been the same all year. They continue to
point out their problems but have no success in fixing them.
“We’re UCLA. We can’t be 4-8,” Patterson
said. “We have to play together and play hard. We can win
because we know we are the better team on the floor.”