At his postgame press conference, UCLA men’s basketball coach Ben Howland started off with his usual assessment of the Bruins’ game.
He pointed to the solid numbers put up by senior center Alfred Aboya.
He commented on the continuing development of the Bruin bench, especially freshmen Drew Gordon and Jerime Anderson. He liked Nikola Dragovic’s hot shooting from beyond the 3-point line.
But the detail he emphasized more than any other in determining the outcome of the game was not a player or stat.
It was the Pauley Pavilion crowd.
The No. 15 Bruins (18-4, 8-2 Pac-10) rode the intensity of the 12,179 in attendance to a 76-60 win over the crosstown rival USC Trojans (15-7, 6-4) on Wednesday night, moving half a game ahead of Washington for first place in the Pac-10 standings.
“The crowd was the best crowd that we had this year,” Howland said. “They were just really electric (Wednesday night), this building was electric, and that makes it a fun atmosphere for our players. And I really believe the electricity and energy of the building just feeds the frenzy to play defense the way we play defense.”
The deafening crowd noise and the palpable excitement of the UCLA fans helped the Bruins achieve, what Howland called, “the best half we’ve had, with maybe a possible comparison when we played Michigan here two or three years ago.”
In the first half, the Bruins jumped out with a big lead and never looked back. After USC point guard Daniel Hackett cut the Bruin lead to 9-6 with a layup with 15:47 left in the half, UCLA went on a 27-7 run over the next 9:50 to move ahead 36-13, sending Pauley Pavilion into a frenzy. The Bruins went into the break up 44-21.
“We definitely feel the energy,” said senior forward Josh Shipp, who led the Bruins with 19 points. “We see the fans camping out all night. We knew they were excited about the game as well as us. It started from the tip-off; it was loud in here, it was a great atmosphere.”
A big part to the Bruins’ success was the hot shooting of Dragovic, who made 4-of-5 3-point shots in the first half. Dragovic would cool off in the second half, finishing with 12 points.
“I don’t understand why he’s open so much,” said freshman guard Jrue Holiday, who finished with 13 points and seven assists. “He’s a great shooter and you can always find him.”
USC guard Dwight Lewis led the Trojans with 20 points, while star freshman DeMar DeRozan added 15 points.
Noticeably absent from the stat sheet was Trojan big man Taj Gibson. Entering the game averaging 15.0 points per game, Gibson was held to a season-low of two points.
Howland said one of the reasons for the Bruins’ success defensively against Gibson was a combination of pressure on the ball and a denial of the ball in the post.
Aboya helped with that defensive pressure and said this game meant a lot to him. After scoring just five points in the last game against USC, Aboya was determined to have a good game.
He was successful, earning a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
“It was a big challenge for me going into this game,” Aboya said. “Last game I played against USC, I didn’t have a good game and I wanted to be aggressive this time around and prevent (Gibson) from scoring.”
After a night in which the Bruins won their third game in a row and continued the tenacious play on defense, Howland was asked if he had any complaints.
“Yeah, too many turnovers,” Howland said. “But other than that, unbelievable intensity (Wednesday night). And again, the energy of the crowd, it just was fun.”