It wasn’t an embarrassing loss by any means. It wasn’t a loss of any historical proportions.
But the Bruins came up short of the win once again.
The UCLA (11-13, 6-6 Pac-10) and USC (15-9, 7-5) basketball teams both battled for control of a sometimes-sloppy and always-tense rivalry game on Sunday night, but in the end, the Trojans took hold for a 68-64 victory.
It was the Bruins’ first loss at the four-year-old Galen Center and also the first time they have been swept by their cross-town adversary in a season since 2004.
“The guys are obviously disappointed,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said.
Freshman forward Brendan Lane, who got his first career start in place of injured senior forward James Keefe, agreed.
“We worked hard all week and to come so close and then lose, it’s tough,” Lane said.
After the Trojans came to Pauley Pavilion in January and stamped a 21-point loss on the home team ““ their largest victory ever in the building ““ the Bruins were trying to return the favor with a win of their own. And at times, it looked like they might accomplish that.
“I think we matched their intensity (tonight), not like the first time we played them,” senior forward Nikola Dragovic said. “But with 20 turnovers it’s hard to beat anybody.”
Though its superior rebounding kept them in the game for most of the night, UCLA was consistently held back by poor ball handling on the perimeter, which a smothering USC defense quickly turned into points.
Sophomore Malcolm Lee had six turnovers by himself, and six other Bruins contributed at least two.
“As the point guard I just did a bad job on that one,” Lee said. “Bad plays just feed off other bad plays, and that’s what was happening.”
USC came out strong on the back of 12 first-half points from senior guard Dwight Lewis, who finished the game with 23, just shy of the 24 he totaled in the teams’ first meeting.
The Bruins clawed back into the game as the halfway point neared, holding the Trojans scoreless for almost a five-minute stretch and pushing their way to a one-point advantage. But UCLA fumbled the ball away in each of its final two possessions, which was enough to give back the lead to USC going into the break. That string of events became too common an occurrence for the Bruins to mount a victory.
“They were just overplaying a lot,” Lee said. “Especially when the momentum got on their side, the crowd got on their side.”
Four consecutive UCLA turnovers helped spark a 7-0 USC run early in the second half that gave the home team a lead it would never relinquish.
Senior guard Michael Roll had 21 points to lead the Bruins in scoring for the second straight game. He was also the only Bruin to make all of his free throws. UCLA, a 62 percent free-throw shooting team on the season, hit just 9-of-18 against USC.
“It was frustrating because we spent a lot of time on it,” Howland said of the free-throw shooting.
Dragovic, who was 1-for-4 from the line, said the team practiced taking 100 free throws four separate times after practice in the week leading up to the game. His results in the simulation did not seem to bear any correlation to his actual performance.
“I don’t think I ever (made) anytime under 96,” he said. “In the game, I guess it’s different, we’re a little fatigued.”
Dragovic also had just a single made 3-pointer ““ on his first attempt of the game ““ adding to his résumé of woe from beyond the arc. He is now 3-for-19 over the last four games.
Even with the outcome, it was easy to spot a highlight in the Bruins’ play. USC is one of the better rebounding teams in the conference statistically, yet UCLA consistently won the battle of the boards.
Even on the Trojan side of the court, the Bruins held the advantage, grabbing 21 offensive rebounds to only 17 defensive ones by their opponent.
“We did a good job blocking out,” Dragovic said. “It was a big problem last time we played them, so we improved in that area.”
The team has a quick turnaround to get back on track, traveling North to Washington for two more games in two more hostile environments.
“We’ve just got to put this one past us,” Lee said. “We can’t grief on this loss.”