In the final stage of its task to win three straight games after its five-game losing streak, UCLA men’s basketball put itself in a good position to accomplish that, leading USC 36-31 at halftime.
The Bruins’ frontcourt led the way early. Within the first three minutes of the game, UCLA already had accumulated five offensive rebounds. To get offensive rebounds, though, meant UCLA was missing a lot of shots.
On UCLA’s second offensive possession, which lasted over a minute, the Bruins missed four shots, but grabbed three offensive boards. The shots that did fall early on, however, were made by the frontcourt players. Junior forward/center Tony Parker had six of the Bruins’ first eight points and freshman forward Kevon Looney scored the other two.
UCLA’s frequent misses – the Bruins shot 36.3 percent through the first eight minutes – opened the door for USC to take an early 10-8 lead.
Then UCLA got hot.
Sophomore guard Bryce Alford gave the Bruins back the lead at the 11:51 mark, hitting a three-pointer to put UCLA ahead 11-10. Then it was Thomas Welsh’s turn to build the lead. The freshman center slammed home a dunk then hit a short jumper to build UCLA’s lead to five. A three from sophomore guard Isaac Hamilton extended the UCLA advantage to 18-10, capping a 10-0 run for the Bruins over a 2:13 stretch.
USC didn’t stay quiet for long, however.
A pair of three-pointers from USC redshirt sophomore guard Katin Reinhardt ended UCLA’s run and brought the Trojans within two with just over eight minutes to go in the first half.
The two teams traded leads and shooting slumps for the next few minutes – the Bruins stumped at times with the zone defense the Trojans began playing on them. A three-pointer from freshman forward G.G. Goloman with under a minute to play solidified UCLA’s lead heading into halftime, however, giving the Bruins a 36-31 advantage.
Parker led UCLA with 11 points on 5-5 shooting, while Alford and Welsh each added six points.
Compiled by Kevin Bowman, Bruin Sports senior staff.