By Bobby Gordon
Bruin Sports senior staff
bgordon@media.ucla.edu
SEATTLE “”mdash; Darren Collison’s day went from bad to worse.
Early in the second half, his teammate Josh Shipp got caught up with Washington’s Venoy Overton.
Overton pulled Shipp off the court by his jersey and the two went down.
When the two stood up confrontationally, Collison ran to Shipp’s aid and ended up being the one given a technical.
“I thought he did a cheap shot on Josh, and I was sticking up for my teammate,” Collison said.
“I think it was because I reacted. I didn’t say any words. I just reacted in a way … I can’t let my emotions get over on me, but again I was sticking up for my teammate.”
The technical was Collison’s third foul and forced him to play a lot more cautiously on defense.
Washington’s Justin Dentmon took advantage, blowing past the guard who was anxiously trying to avoid fourth and fifth fouls in the game.
Toward the very end of the game, the wary Collison, who is generally very good at keeping ball handlers in front of him, was switched off of Dentmon in favor of sophomore Russell Westbrook. Dentmon scored 20 points off the bench for the Huskies.
“(Collison) had a bad game today,” coach Ben Howland said. “Obviously Dentmon had a great game. I thought that his third foul on the technical was a key juncture because it kind of put his hands in his pockets. … That was a bad play. We lost our composure there. There was no reason for that.”
Collison’s day had been going wrong long before the technical foul call. The guard was held scoreless in the first half and was only able to get one shot off.
“He didn’t shoot the ball enough,” Westbrook said. “I think he should’ve shot the ball a lot more. He’s one of the best point guards in the country. He has to score for us to have a chance at winning ball games.”
Against Washington State on Thursday, Collison struggled early, also scoring zero points in the first half.
However, on Thursday he turned it on in the second half, churning out 18 points and helping the Bruins win against a desperate Cougar team.
Sunday, that late burst never came. Though he started shooting more, his attempts seemed to go everywhere but in the bucket.
Collison’s first basket finally came on a 3-pointer with two minutes remaining in the second half, and it would provide his only points in the game. He ended the day 1-of-8 from the floor with four assists.
Sunday’s offensive performance was his worst since being held scoreless in the NCAA Championship loss to Florida in 2006.
“He definitely could have helped us more,” Shipp said. “(But) those games happen, and we have to step it up for him.”
Adding to the list of reasons that Collison will want to forget this game is the 2-1 ratio of turnovers to assists he had, finishing with a total of eight turnovers, with six in the first half.
“It was bad,” Collison said. “It was horrible. I wasn’t aggressive at all like I was before. There’s no words to explain. I tried to set my teammates up, but there’s really no words to explain it. I played bad. I really take credit for this team’s loss.”