EUGENE, Ore. — For once, the story for UCLA wasn’t its offense. Although, after Saturday’s performance against Oregon, maybe the Bruins wish it was.
What became apparent within the first five minutes of the first half – a period in which the Ducks hit their five of their first seven shots – was this: UCLA couldn’t slow Oregon down.
The Bruins had little answer for the Pac-12’s top offense Saturday, as they fell to the Ducks 82-64.
UCLA’s (11-9, 3-4 Pac-12) all-too familiar offensive struggles plagued the team early, as the Bruins connected on just three of their first 10 shots and had several careless turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
Oregon (14-6, 4-3) had no such trouble as the Ducks seemingly played against air on offense en route to mounting a 46-31 lead after the first half, a period in which they shot 75 percent and had more turnovers than missed shots.
“They shot lights out tonight. I’ve honestly never seen somebody shoot that way, especially in the first half,” said sophomore guard Bryce Alford. “But that’s on our defense. We had way too many breakdowns and we’re shorthanded. It’s not an excuse but we didn’t have it tonight, especially on the defensive end.”
On a court marked with the words “Deep in the Woods,” the Bruins ran into a collective buzz saw, as UCLA offered as much resistance as tissue paper against Oregon.
Five different Oregon players scored in double figures, led by Joseph Young’s 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting as the Ducks shot 62.3 percent for the game, including 9-for-13 from beyond the arc.
UCLA showed little improvement coming out of the half, as the defensive rotation issues persisted. Oregon made each of its first four shots of the half, three of which were uncontested jumpers, negating UCLA’s own hot start to the half.
The Bruins hit seven of their first eight shots of the half but were never able to cut the Ducks’ lead to single digits.
“They were shooting 75 percent at halftime and that’s unheard of. That’s basically them getting ‘HORSE’ shots,” said senior guard Norman Powell. “Nobody in their face, nobody putting pressure on them, and they hit shots. It was just tough that we dug ourselves in a hole defensively. It was just tough to climb out.”
Any comeback bid was seriously hampered with 7:58 left to play, as freshman forward Kevon Looney exited the game after picking up his fifth foul.
While the Ducks had a plethora of scoring options, UCLA was essentially forced to rely on three players – Powell, Looney and Alford – to do all of the scoring as the team was without junior forward/center Tony Parker for the second straight game.
“Hopefully we get Tony healthy because if it becomes like today and we get in foul trouble, we just don’t have anywhere to go so it becomes real difficult trying to manage the game,” said coach Steve Alford.
Without Parker, UCLA’s trio combined for 53 points, led by Powell’s game-high 23, while Isaac Hamilton’s offensive struggles continued. The sophomore guard finished 1-for-7 for the third time in the Bruins’ last six games and is now 12 of his last 52, dating back to UCLA’s Jan. 4 loss at Utah.
Following the game, Alford stressed the need for the guard’s production to pick up and for his team to stay positive on the heels of a road trip in which the Bruins were outscored 148-117 and suffered massive breakdowns on each side of the ball.
In the Bruins’ three-game win streak earlier this month, it seemed as if they had found a winning formula.
In the span of three days, UCLA’s depth, inexperience and frustrations were exposed once again, and then some.
“It’s really frustrating but my job is to stay positive. … It’s just hitting the switch to get everybody on the same page and fighting just as hard as me and Bryce, the leaders are,” Powell said. “We’re a young team so I gotta find ways to get the young guys motivated and ready to play. … Because when we compete all 40 minutes it’s tough. But it’s just consistently getting them on the same page to compete for a full game.”
This team and coaches spit out more excuses every game. The excuses provide the coaching staff plenty of time to continue to do nothing. How come they don’t have a deeper bench??? How come they don’t have a point guard?? How come they do not know how to play defense?? How come they constantly jack up outside shots without working the ball around to get the low post players involved? How come fan interest in actually attending games is dropping faster than Dan Guerrero eating several Hewell Howser donuts from Stans?? How come our bench is always loaded with IM players from Sigma Pi?? I know, we are very young.