UCLA point guard Darren Collison was tired.
The No. 10 Bruins (13-2, 3-0 Pac-10) were locked in a tightly contested struggle with crosstown rival USC, trying to spoil the home crowd’s desires for an upset, and the senior point guard was winded.
Yet sensing the urgency of the moment, aided by a little encouragement from his coach Ben Howland, Collison found the strength he was searching for, leading his team to a nail-biting 64-60 win over the Trojans (10-5, 1-2) in front of 10,258 at the Galen Center.
Following the game, after playing 39 of a possible 40 minutes, Collison admitted he was tired but did not let it affect his performance on the court.
“Yeah, I did get tired,” Collison said. “That’s part of the game. You’re going to get tired; you’re going to get bumps and bruises. The biggest thing is you got to stay in there mentally. Coach, he yelled at me, he said, “˜We need you so bad; we need you to stay in it.’ That woke me up.”
Howland said that the Trojans ran Collison around the court in an effort to tire him out and get him off the floor.
“He is a great athlete,” Howland said. “Not just a great basketball player, but to be able to play in this environment and that many minutes is asking a lot of somebody.”
Collison finished with a game-high 18 points, while UCLA forward Nikola Dragovic scored a career-high 14 points in his first start as a Bruin, starting over forward James Keefe. Howland said the change was because of Dragovic’s improved play and the fact that his offensive abilities gave the team a better matchup against the Trojans’ Triangle-and-Two defense.
The Trojans, coming off a disappointing loss on the road to Oregon State last week, went on a 12-4 run to start the second half, turning a 33-31 deficit into a 43-37 lead with 15:19 to play.
But the Bruins would not be deterred by the surging Trojans. Led by their veterans, UCLA battled back, regaining the lead on Collison’s two-point jump shot with 8:24 to play.
“As a point guard, you got to take more leadership,” Collison said.
“You got to control the ball a little bit more. These are times when you want to have the ball in the point guard’s hands. That’s what I try to do. I try to make plays for my teammates.”
With the score tied at 53, the Bruins finished the game on an 11-7 run that would prove enough to outlast the Trojans and remain undefeated in the Galen Center.
Pivotal in the Bruin comeback was the play of the defense, especially that of freshman guard Jrue Holiday on fellow freshman, USC’s DeMar DeRozan. DeRozan, guarded primarily by Shipp and Michael Roll in the first half, showed his talent, scoring 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting in the first half.
Yet late in the half, Howland put Holiday on DeRozan, who effectively held him to four points on 2-of-2 shooting for the rest of the game.
“I think we played harder because we needed those stops,” Holiday said.
“Those were key stops. When they went on that run, that’s what we needed to come back.”
Throughout the Trojan run that put the Bruins down in the second half, Collison said the team never wavered and never lost composure, referring to comeback situations in the past.
Dragovic echoed his teammate.
“We believed that we could come back,” Dragovic said. “We never gave up on our own team or anything, and in the end we won the game against a good team.”
The game was not without its moments that reminded everyone of the intense rivalry. With 10:37 left in the first half, UCLA forward Drew Gordon followed a missed Collison shot and thought he was fouled by USC guard Daniel Hackett on the play.
The two came face-to-face and with his arms raised, Gordon elbowed Hackett in the mouth while he was walking away, bringing the crowd at the Galen Center to its feet. Neither player was penalized on the play.
After the game, Gordon said there was no intent on his part and that later in the game he apologized to Hackett.