EUGENE Ore. ““ Playing for the first time at Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena, UCLA fell behind early but went on an 11-2 run to close the half down 27-24.
After Ducks were introduced with an elaborate light show, both teams started slowly.
But as the half progressed, the Bruins and Ducks gradually found their way out of “The Woods” and Oregon struck first.
Led by Jeremy Jacob and E.J. Singler, the Ducks capitalized on Bruin turnovers and strung together a 10-0 run that took less than two minutes.
Coach Ben Howland shot off the bench to midcourt to scream for a timeout after Garrett Sim hit a 3-pointer to cap the run.
Out of the timeout, the Bruins refocused and cobbled together an 11-2 run of their own.
Junior guard Lazaric Jones was instrumental in the run, scoring four points on hanging jumpers, showing no lingering effects from his injured shooting finger.
Sophomore forward Reeves Nelson played only six minutes in the half and picked up his third foul with 7:52 still to play.
UCLA freshman center Josh Smith came off the bench as expected and picked up only one foul in 12 minutes of play.