EUGENE, Ore. “”mdash; When it gets as bad as 79-48, when the
Bruins outdo themselves once again by scoring under 50 for the
first time in over three years, one would think that explanations
are no longer simple.
But after a loss that dropped UCLA to 7-18 overall and 4-12 in
the Pac-10, UCLA head coach Steve Lavin pretty much got right to
the heart of it.
“Basically, you have a team that’s not playing very
well against a team hitting on all cylinders,” Lavin
said.
Three and a half minutes into the game, there was no doubt as to
which team was which. Oregon (20-7, 10-6) blitzed UCLA with a 13-0
run to start the game, driving 9,087 fans at McArthur Court into a
frenzy. After the Bruins controlled the tip, freshman Ryan Hollins
bobbled a pass that probably would have led to a dunk.
Oregon’s Luke Jackson cooly nailed a three-pointer on the
other end of the floor. Then James Davis hit one. Lavin earned a
technical foul for the second straight game, Luke Ridnour drained
the two free throws and made a three on the next possession.
And before they knew it, the Bruins were down, out and
completely deflated.
“The game starts off with two threes, then here comes the
technical,” junior T.J. Cummings said. “You look up at
the scoreboard and it’s like, “˜man, this is
ridiculous.'”
“I looked up at the score and thought about Don
Larsen,” Lavin joked. “I thought it might be a perfect
game.”
Sophomore Andre Patterson made two foul shots six minutes into
the game to finally erase the glaring “0” on the
Bruins’ side of the scoreboard. But it took UCLA until the
12:26 mark to make a field goal.
“I think they were kind of shocked at how hard we came
out,” Ridnour said.
The Bruins mustered an 8-0 run near the end of the first half
and narrowed the rapidly-expanding Oregon lead to 12. But in a
sequence that has become all too customary for UCLA on the road
this season, the one big play ““ the shot that could have made
the game manageable once again ““ simply wasn’t
there.
Senior Jason Kapono, who finished with five points, missed an
open three pointer. Oregon responded with a modest 9-4 stretch and
went into the locker room ahead a comfortable 17 points.
The Bruins made just six of 27 shots (22.2 percent) in the first
half. They had one assist to Oregon’s 12. They didn’t
make a single three pointer, while the Ducks made eight.
“It was a litany of things,” Lavin said. “It
started with me and the technical, and then not being able to make
a basket.
“We were just a step slow. Like they say, a day late and a
dollar short.”
In the second half, it only got worse.
UCLA senior Ray Young, starting at point guard in place of the
injured Cedric Bozeman for the fourth consecutive game, picked up
his fourth personal foul three minutes into the second half, right
in the middle of an 11-2 Oregon run.
The Ducks made six of nine three pointers to finish 14-of-24
(58.3 percent) from behind the arc. Even Oregon senior Robert
Johnson, who hadn’t shot a triple all year, connected on his
only attempt.
“When we shoot the ball like that, we’re a difficult
team to beat,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
And when UCLA finishes 24.6 percent from the field, with one
player in double figures, it’s difficult to find a team the
Bruins can beat.
“We took a step backward,” Kapono said.
Three competitive performances in a row had the Bruins believing
they might, as most teams do, continue the trend, and maybe scare
some teams in the Pac-10 Tournament.
But after Saturday’s shellacking, things might not be so
simple after all.