No Travis Wear, no problem.
For the third straight game, the redshirt senior forward didn’t touch the court, but in an 86-50 win over the Sacramento State Hornets, the Bruins’ third straight win, his loss didn’t particularly sting.
As recently as Thursday, coach Steve Alford said, “We do hope to have Trav back,” a goal that would have put the Bruins, who have had a short bench so far this season, in a better respiratory place.
The Bruins were already limited to just seven players in their rotation Monday night without Wear and freshman guard/forward Noah Allen, who Alford said is “close to six weeks” away from returning after fracturing several bones in his face against Oakland and later undergoing surgery.
In the last few days, that number nearly dwindled to six, as freshman guard Bryce Alford came down with a virus that gave him a sore throat all throughout the day Monday.
To remedy a short bench that included the under-the-weather freshman who said he “fought through” his 24 minutes on the court, UCLA’s starters managed to stay out of foul trouble and fouls, period, not committing their first team foul until 9:39 remained in the first half.
“Foul trouble here really could have affected us. We really didn’t know about Bryce until game time – how much, if any, he could play – and I thought he gave us some good minutes,” Alford said.
For UCLA, the sparks nearly flew in the first half. Sophomore guard/forward Kyle Anderson tried to spice things up early for the 5,489 fans on hand, to no avail. With just under nine minutes remaining in the first half, he peppered what should have been a lobbed alley-oop to redshirt senior forward David Wear. Just minutes later, he was too high on a similar play to freshman guard Zach LaVine, who rose up to get one hand on the pass but missed at the rim.
No. 22 UCLA (3-0) went on a 16-6 run in the last 9:11 of the half, but didn’t carry much momentum into halftime even with a 13-point lead, failing to score a single field goal in the half’s final 3:45.
Anderson’s luck quickly changed.
With 17:47 remaining in the second half, Anderson’s third alley found its charmed oop, as junior guard Norman Powell appropriately timed his jump to finish on the other end.
The flashiness proved contagious, as just over four minutes later, freshman guard Bryce Alford completed a nifty behind-the-back pass to Jordan Adams to set the sophomore up for consecutive points six and seven.
“I just had Jordan to my right and Zach on my left and I knew that no matter what, as long as I got it to one of them, they were going to finish. I don’t know why, but I just happened to go behind my back and got Jordan the open layup.”
Adams finished with a game-high 21 points, shooting 4-of-5 from three-point range to lead the Bruins to a 61.3-percent second half from the field. His career-high eight steals also sparked a sound defensive effort that held Sacramento State (1-2) to just 21-of-62 shooting for the game.
“We seemed a little bit more energized,” LaVine said. “Usually when we go into zone we’re more energized, but this time out of the gate we started with man and picked up our defense really well and it energized our offense.”
It didn’t matter on Monday night, but the Bruins likely will not have to endure another game without Travis Wear.
“He’ll be full-go by Friday,” Alford said.