It was supposed to be T.J. Cummings’ night. It ended up,
according to him, being all his fault.
On the much-anticipated day when Cummings had officially gotten
his grades up, UCLA, lucky to have gotten off to such a good start
without its senior forward, came crashing down to Earth, losing
61-60 to UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday at Pauley
Pavilion.
"I’ll take this on my shoulders," said Cummings, who had his
eligibility restored just hours prior to tip-off. "It’s all on
me."
It was Cummings who fouled Gaucho forward Casey Cook on a
put-back attempt with 18.4 seconds remaining and UCLA leading
60-59. He then could only watch as Cook, who had game-highs of 15
points and six rebounds, made the two game-winning free
throws.
Cook later stole point guard Cedric Bozeman’s inbound pass to
seal the win and allow UCSB (5-2) to extend its winning streak to
four games.
If Cummings learned nothing else after hours and hours of studying,
it was accountability. He had been declared academically ineligible
in August, causing him to miss UCLA’s two exhibition games and the
first four regular-season games.
Cummings rebounded by passing 18 units in the fall quarter, but
only pulled down one rebound in 26 minutes of play Wednesday.
"I should have been more of a monster in the paint," he said. "I
really slacked out there."
UCSB held a 25-20 rebounding edge over UCLA (3-2). The Gauchos
had 10 of their 12 offensive rebounds in the second half and
seemingly got to every loose ball before the Bruins
could.
"The bottom line is that (UCSB) wanted to win it more," said
UCLA coach Ben Howland, a Santa Barbara native and former UCSB
assistant. "I don’t remember one time we dove for the floor on the
ball, and I remember 10 times they were sprawled out on the floor.
That’s just being out-hustled on your own floor.
"They made their breaks. We didn’t."
UCSB shot out in the second half, going on a 14-3 run and taking
a 45-41 lead with 12:30 left. Chrismen Oliver’s uncontested lay-in
with 6:14 left gave the Gauchos a 55-50 lead–its largest of the
game.
Dijon Thompson, who finished with 13 points on the night,
responded with two 3-pointers, but otherwise, the Bruins failed to
convert on their opportunities down the stretch.
Forward Trevor Ariza intercepted a Gaucho pass and flew in for a
dunk to give UCLA a 60-59 lead with 40.1 seconds remaining. But on
the ensuing possession, Ariza failed to properly block out Cook,
whose offensive rebound won the game for UCSB.
"(Cook) kind of hooked me, but nobody could really see it,"
Ariza explained.
Said Bozeman, "We didn’t rebound. That’s why we lost the
game."
Bozeman’s subsequent driving lay-up went in-and-out with the
ball going out of bounds to UCLA, but Cook stepped in to steal his
inbound pass and flipped it behind his back to kill the remaining
2.4 seconds of the game.
"It’s a heartbreaker," said Cummings, who ended up playing
center in the final minutes.
Cummings, who scored 12 of his team-high 24 points in the first
half, did not start. He checked into the game with 14:48 left and
quickly assisted on a Thompson dunk before scoring his first points
on a jumper in the midst of a 12-2 run that gave UCLA an early
21-13 lead. UCLA had a 35-31 halftime lead after Cummings scored
eight of UCLA’s final nine points of the half.
"T.J. really played within himself," Howland said.
And that, ultimately, might just have been the problem.