UCLA buries Irish with second-half barrage
Bruins get emotional,
outscore Notre Dame
63-28 in second period
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
All it took was a little extra intensity.
After struggling through a lackluster first-half performance,
the seventh-ranked UCLA men’s basketball team rode the emotion of
an Ed O’Bannon outburst and ran away with a 92-55 shellacking of
Notre Dame in front of 11,617 Sunday at Pauley Pavilion.
With 15:12 remaining in the second half, Notre Dame freshman
Derek Manner sent UCLA’s Tyus Edney flying into the padded base of
the backboard standard after the 5-foot-10-inch point guard had
left his feet for a fast-break layup attempt.
As Edney – who missed Thursday night’s win at USC with the flu –
sat on the floor, O’Bannon ran the length of the court and, in an
emotional eruption, shoved Manner from behind.
"From my view, it looked like the foul was intentional,"
O’Bannon said. "We just got Tyus off the injured reserve, and we
couldn’t afford to lose him for another game. I guess I lost it,
and maybe I shouldn’t have done it, but it helped us out as far as
intensity goes."
It certainly did. When O’Bannon committed the technical, UCLA
was slowly building on the 29-27 lead it had gained with a
spiritless first-half performance. The Bruins, on a 9-2 run in the
first four minutes of the second half, appeared to have broken the
shooting slump that accounted for a 10-for-31 field goal
performance in the first half.
Then, Edney was dropped, and O’Bannon lost his temper.
"That was uncalled for, for O’Bannon to come down and hit our
guy in the back," Notre Dame head coach John MacLeod said. "Our
guy’s just trying to learn how to play. Derek Manner is not going
to intentionally foul anybody, and I’m surprised that Ed would do
that, to be honest with you."
Right or wrong, O’Bannon’s tirade turned out to be a wake-up
call for his teammates, and after Edney sank his foul shots and
Ryan Hoover made the technical shots for Notre Dame, the Bruins
went on a 27-7 run that left the score at 67-38 with 8:56 left in
the game.
More than anything, it was defense that keyed UCLA’s 63-point
second-half performance. The Bruins had 16 steals in the game, and
13 of those came in the final 20 minutes.
"Our press got us moving and we generated some offense in the
second half," UCLA head coach Jim Harrick said. "Our defense –
full-court and half-court – was the difference in the game."
And when they weren’t running the fast break off of any of Notre
Dame’s 32 turnovers, the Bruins were setting up a half-court
offense and getting the ball to center George Zidek down low.
Zidek, who drew the ejection of Notre Dame’s Marcus Young in the
second half, finished with 20 points and six rebounds. Twelve of
his 20 points came in the second period, and nine of those were at
the end of UCLA’s 27-7 run after O’Bannon’s technical.
"We’ve had some excellent games this year, but we didn’t have an
answer for Zidek," MacLeod said. "As soon as UCLA saw that we were
in trouble, they went after us.
"Today, they showed why they are one of the top teams in the
country."
The Bruins also received a jump start from their much heralded
freshmen, who had been struggling in recent weeks. Toby Bailey
scored 15 points and had four steals, while J.R. Henderson scored
nine points and had two assists and one steal.
"This is one outstanding basketball team," MacLeod said.
"They’re much better than last year, and Bailey and Henderson give
them tremendous depth and support, which they didn’t have last
year."
Edney finished with 15 points, five assists and two steals, and
O’Bannon had 10 points, seven assists, five rebounds and four
steals. Manner led Notre Dame with 11 points, four rebounds and
three assists.