With one more blowout victory ““ this one a ho-hum 76-48 win over UC Davis ““ UCLA can finally begin looking forward to its conference schedule.
At 12-1, the Bruins are in good position entering conference play but have not played against a truly good team since losing to Texas on Dec. 2.
Davis (5-7) was simply the last in a line of nonconference teams that left the talented Bruins relatively unchallenged.
The game was never really in question as the Bruins dominated the offensive glass. In the first half, Davis took just 15 shots, while UCLA took 35. The score at the half, 37-24, was much closer than the extraneous stats would indicate, but that changed in the second half when the Aggies had two separate scoring droughts of over six minutes.
UCLA outrebounded Davis 31-16 and had 15 offensive rebounds to the undersized Aggies’ two.
Josh Shipp wore a sleeve on his knee for the game, but it was due to stiffness in the knee, not an injury.
BRACED FOR COLLISON: Point guard Darren Collison has played his last game with a knee brace. After suffering a slight sprain in the first exhibition game of the year, Collison will finally be shedding the brace that he has said has limited him defensively.
NEXT UP: The Bruins now head to the Bay Area to open the Pac-10 season. The Bruins will face Stanford on Thursday in Palo Alto and then will play Cal on Saturday. UCLA coach Ben Howland said that the Lopez twins of Stanford and Ryan Anderson and DeVon Hardin of Cal are all NBA-level players.