The early goings of the UCLA men’s basketball game on Friday night had all the markings of a sequel to the team’s disastrous opening night loss earlier in the week.
That was until the Bruins finally decided to put on a show more typical of November Pauley Pavilion games.
In the end, UCLA (1-1) left with a 75-64 win over Cal State Bakersfield (1-2) – its first of the season – but more importantly they recovered a degree of that old confidence.
Led by a career-high 19 points from sophomore forward Drew Gordon, all five of the Bruin starters finished in double figures. UCLA seemed to have found its stroke in the second half, working out of a much-improved offensive attack.
“Once we did a good job of settling down, we got good open looks,” coach Ben Howland said.
The same could not be said for the team in the first part of the game.
After trailing by 11 with just under six minutes to go in the first half, the Bruins finished with a 10-0 run capped by a lay-up by senior guard Mike Roll with just five seconds remaining before the break.
Similar to their loss against Cal State Fullerton on Monday, the Bruins once again looked befuddled by a zone defense early on ““ this one of the 2-1-2 variety ““ which helped them to commit 21 turnovers on the night.
“Again, you see signs of a very young team with a lot of inexperience,” Howland said.
Eventually UCLA found a way to work the ball inside to overpower a Bakersfield squad whose tallest starting player was just 6 feet, 6 inches.
“We just wanted to make sure we didn’t have a repeat of last time,” said the six-foot-eight Gordon, who also dominated defensively with three blocks. “We wanted to make sure how hard we practiced the whole week paid off.”
This contest also marked the debut of freshman forward Brendan Lane. Lane and forward classmate Mike Moser each scored their first points of the season.
DRAGOVIC ARRESTED: Senior forward Nikola Dragovic was arrested on Friday for an October incident at a Hollywood nightclub. He was suspended for the night’s game and was not present on the Bruins’ bench.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office filed a felony assault charge on Friday morning, but no more specifics on the incident were released by the UCLA Athletic Department.
“They were kind enough to let him turn himself in,” Howland said. “We wanted to respond as quick as possible which happened around 11 a.m. this morning.”
Howland did not rule on any further disciplinary action, but did note that he would take into account Dragovic’s prior history of involvement with the police while at UCLA in his decision.
“I will meet with my superiors and discuss the facts that I find out and we will move further into seeing where we go from there,” Howland said.
This is the second arrest in as many years for the senior from Serbia. He missed one early regular season game last year for an altercation incident with his ex-girlfriend, though he was not charged.