MANHATTAN, N.Y. “”mdash; The Bruin men’s basketball team is in danger of coming home from its Thanksgiving excursion with an empty stomach.
Virginia Commonwealth (3-1) leads UCLA (3-1) 40-37 at halftime in Friday’s consolation round of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden.
After losing to Villanova 82-70 on Wednesday night in the tournament’s semifinals, UCLA came out slow against VCU, a team that lost a tight 77-72 game to No. 24 Tennessee in its own semifinal matchup. The Bruins were down by as many as 11 points to the Rams in the first half, as the black and gold scored easily from just under the basket.
UCLA junior guard Malcolm Lee, who led the leads his team with 13 points, nailed a pair of three-pointers and made a transition lay-up to bring the Bruins within one with 1:17 left in the half.
Sophomore forward Reeves Nelson has eight rebounds and five points. Freshman center Josh Smith has no scores or boards in his nine minutes.
VCU 6-foot-9 senior forward Jamie Skeen leads his team with 12 points and seven rebounds, but missed six minutes of the first half after getting poked in the eye.
Once again, the Bruins are having trouble holding onto the ball on offense. Sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt and freshman guard Tyler Lamb each have three of the team’s 12 turnovers.
A modest crowd has gathered for the early game at The Garden on the last day of the NIT Tip-Off event. The VCU band, the only one to show this week, is stationed courtside, but the audience is of mixed allegiances if any at all.