Sophomore guard Bryce Alford spoke Tuesday about the necessity to get the ball to the bigs inside to break Oregon State’s disruptive zone defense, which forced UCLA into shooting just 30.6 percent in its loss to Oregon State last month.
At the start of Wednesday night’s game at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins decided to cut out the middle man.
UCLA hit four consecutive 3-pointers in the opening minutes to build an early lead and cruised to the finish, beating Oregon State 75-59.
“It was big to hit outside shots against the zone,” said Alford, who finished with a team-high 22 points and five 3-pointers. “They play really good zone and if we can make shots like that at the beginning of the game, they have to adjust and we did that at the beginning and it hurt.”
The Bruins’ performance in the win was in stark contrast to how it played in Corvallis, Ore. last month when the Beavers dominated for the majority of their 66-55 victory.
UCLA experienced few of the offensive hardships Wednesday that Oregon State’s zone defense caused last time around. After scoring just 19 points in the first half in the previous matchup, the Bruins matched that score total after the first 6:26 Wednesday, aided by their hot perimeter shooting.
UCLA finished the game shooting 10-18 from beyond the arc, totaling 17 assists in the process as sophomore guard Isaac Hamilton frequently drove then dished the ball to the perimeter for an open shot.
“Making good decisions – that’s what we talked about for the last two days in going against their zone that we didn’t do up there,” said coach Steve Alford. “We didn’t have good shot selection up there and we didn’t make good decisions with the ball and tonight we did that.”
Meanwhile, Oregon State had its turn being locked down by an opposing defense. The Beavers had two scoreless stretches in the first half that each lasted for over three minutes and they finished the half shooting just 26.7 percent.
A final and perhaps most crucial difference lay solely in personnel. The Bruins were forced to play without junior forward/center Tony Parker last time against the Beavers as he dealt with back spasms. As a result, freshman forward Kevon Looney frequently found himself double-teamed with no other post player posing an offensive threat, and shot just 3-for-10 in that game.
After the initial barrage of threes to start Wednesday’s game, UCLA did eventually settle into its original game plan, feeding the ball inside to Parker with regularity. He made his impact felt, grabbing 10 rebounds and scoring 15 points, including 7-9 shooting from the free throw line.
Parker joked after the game that it might have been his best performance from the free throw line since his days in rec league as a third grader, and added that his hot shooting was the result of extra shooting practice with Bryce Alford.
“It’s like a Steph Curry, Klay Thompson thing we got going on,” Parker said, “I’m a mixture of both. And a little of LeBron, just depends on the game.”
On Wednesday, Parker just being himself was enough.