With 13:18 left in the second half, Darren Collison slashed to the basket, banking a shot in off the backboard and drawing a foul against Colonial guard Xavier Alexander.
The Bruins already had a commanding lead at the time, and Collison would go on to miss the free throw. But the fact that the junior guard was even attempting a 3-point play at all said something greater: The Bruins were starting to get healthy.
But they weren’t doing it in a pretty game.
Collison made his return to the Bruin lineup to help them rout visiting George Washington, 83-60, in a game characterized most by tight officiating and defensive pressure.
Alexander was one of two Colonials to foul out of the game with considerable time remaining, and at times the flow of the game was disrupted by questionable calls.
But the biggest story of the night might have been the play of Russell Westbrook, the sophomore who stepped into the starting point guard role while Collison was sidelined with a grade-one MCL sprain.
Westbrook repeatedly broke down the Colonial press, and led the Bruins with a game-high 19 points, as well as seven rebounds and eight assists against only two turnovers.
“I thought (Westbrook) did an unbelievable job penetrating to jump stop to kicking it back out,” coach Ben Howland said. “He hit Josh for two 3s in a row that kind of broke the game open early in the second half.”
Westbrook started against the Colonials and Collison came off the bench, and for now it’s not clear how soon Howland will hand the reins of the offense back to Collison, who finished with 14 points, five assists and no turnovers in 26 minutes.
But after playing their last few games with only eight healthy scholarship players, having two healthy guards of such high caliber seems like a good problem for UCLA to have.
“It’s great,” junior guard/forward Josh Shipp said. “It means a lot more shots for me. They’re just looking to penetrate and kick it back out.”
The Colonials ran a number of zone defenses and double teams designed to contain the Bruins’ inside game, holding freshman center Kevin Love to a season-low 11 points and often making the Bruins seem hesitant to feed him the ball in the post.
Still, Love pulled down 11 rebounds for another double-double, and his outlet passing helped the Bruins outscore the Colonials 22 to 5 in fast-break points.
“Obviously it starts with our rebounding,” Howland said. “At halftime we were up one on the boards, and I think we ended up winning by four.”
Collison isn’t the only Bruin on the mend. Junior forward Alfred Aboya, who fractured the orbital floor in his right eye during Friday’s 81-47 rout of Yale was also back, wearing a bright yellow set of protective goggles borrowed from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Junior guard Mike Roll has recently begun practicing again after rupturing his plantar fascia in early November, and sophomore forward James Keefe is expected to be recovered from shoulder surgery in December.
So for now, the Bruins seem to have handled their injury troubles fairly well, and the added experience Westbrook has gained running the point could prove to be a major factor as the team looks ahead to nonconference games against No. 8 Texas and Michigan.
“(The experience) helped me a lot,” Westbrook said. “Me and Darren on the floor. … It’s just two guards on the floor, looking forward to make plays for other people.”