Facing a hostile environment at Oregon’s McArthur Court and a suddenly hot Duck team that had trimmed an 11-point deficit to just three, the UCLA men’s basketball team needed someone to step up.
As he has many times throughout his four years, Darren Collison answered the call.
In the No. 10 Bruins’ 83-74 win over Oregon on Sunday at Mac Court, the senior point guard proved to be pivotal to the Bruins, outlasting the upstart Ducks with his unflappable poise and steady leadership.
After building an 11-point lead at halftime, the Bruins (12-2, 2-0 Pac-10) saw that lead almost evaporate as the Ducks finally found their stroke, recovering from a poor shooting performance in the first half (7-of-20 from the field) to shoot 50 percent (17-of-34) in the second half.
After Oregon junior point guard Tajuan Porter nailed a 3-pointer to cut the Bruin lead to 64-60 with six minutes, 13 seconds left in the game, the Ducks seemed primed to complete the comeback.
Yet that comeback never came, due in large part to the calming effect Collison had on his team. He capped off an 8-0 run with a 3-point play to push the lead to 71-60 with 2:50 left in the game, effectively sealing the win for the Bruins.
Collison finished the game with a team-high 22 points and nine assists.
After the game, coach Ben Howland expanded upon the leadership Collison brings to the team.
“He’s very calming because he’s so good,” Howland said. “He’s a big-time player, which there is no doubt about.”
In addition to making big plays, Collison displayed a great ability to calm down the Bruin offense, orchestrating a patient offensive attack against the Ducks’ 2-3 zone.
“First of all, it’s really hard to pressure him,” Howland said. “He handled the ball for 38 minutes and had one turnover today, which I’m really proud of.”
Down the stretch on Sunday, Collison helped put the game away by converting all six of his free-throw attempts in the final two minutes.
Collison admitted that with a game on the line, it often comes down to the seniors to make the plays. Yet he stressed that basketball is still a team game, and that if a team wishes to be successful, it cannot change its strategy on offense.
“You don’t want to change what you’ve been doing from the first tip-off all the way up to the end of the game,” Collison said. “You want to continue to execute the same way you’ve been executing the first half. When it did get loud, we just remained poised and took our time and executed.”
With the Ducks mounting a comeback and the Bruins struggling to get good shots against the pressuring zone defense, Collison said it was a focus on getting stops on defense that allowed the Bruins to come away with a victory.
“We had the lead. It seems like they were getting momentum every time they got a stop; they were feeding off their crowd,” Collison said. “So we just wanted to remain poised and quiet the crowd as much as possible.”
TOUGH START TO PAC-10 PLAY FOR BRUINS: The opening schedule for the Pac-10 season is not an easy one for the Bruins because five of their first seven conference games are on the road.
After two games in Oregon, the Bruins play at USC on Sunday and at the Washington schools Jan. 22-24. In between the USC game and the Washington series, the Bruins host the Arizona schools Jan. 15-17.
With the Bruins starting the conference season on the road, Howland stressed the importance of two wins in Oregon.
“To come in here into the state of Oregon and get a sweep on the road to start out the conference is huge for us,” he said. “To be able to get two of them under our belt in the win column is huge.”