HOUSTON — It may not be pretty, but at least the half is over.
That’s the best that could be said after the Bruins and the Bulldogs combined to miss 48 shots during a foul-ridden first half of play, with Gonzaga holding a 35-28 lead at the break.
Far from their high scoring first meeting, UCLA and Gonzaga struggled mightily on offense for much of the opening period, as the former shot 39.4 percent of the half, while the latter shot 35.1 percent on 13 for 37 shooting.
UCLA did little by the way of offense outside of senior guard Norman Powell, who led all scorers with 12 points on 6-11 shooting.
Powell produced two of the more rare moments of the half, as he drove the lane for two early layups before Gonzaga quickly responded with an 11-2 run to claim an 11-6 lead at the first media timeout.
Both teams did little after.
The pace of play slowed out of the break as both teams attacked inside, to mixed results. Freshman center Thomas Welsh scored off a defensive breakdown by the Bulldogs while Powell added another layup to cut the Bruins’ deficit to 13-10 with 11:58 left in the period.
Both teams failed to score for prolonged stretches before Gonzaga’s Kyle Dranginis notched a free throw, halting the Bulldogs’ scoring drought at a second more than four minutes. UCLA failed to impact the scoreboard for more than six minutes before Powell added his fourth layup of the half at the 8:01 mark.
In all, the two teams combined to miss 19 shots before Powell’s layup. The Bulldogs missed 11 themselves but still managed to increase their lead to 20-12 before coach Steve Alford called timeout with 6:58 left in the half. As its outside shots failed to connect, Gonzaga repeatedly drove the lane and took advantage of some quick foul calls by referees to do damage at the free throw line.
Byron Wesley moved the Bulldogs’ lead to double digits on a rare made 3 with 5:11 left to play, and Gonzaga maintained such an advantage for much of the rest of play, before junior forward/center Tony Parker’s 3-point play with less than a minute to play cut the deficit to seven.
Compiled by Jordan Lee, Bruin Sports senior staff.