A missed opportunity.
That’s how UCLA men’s basketball coach Ben Howland described the No. 2-seeded Bruins’ 65-55 loss to No. 6 USC on Friday night in the semifinals of the Pacific Life Pac-10 Men’s Basketball Tournament at Staples Center. The Trojans move on to the tournament finals to face No. 4 Arizona State today at 3 p.m.
It was a struggle offensively for the Bruins the entire night, as they could not handle the Trojans’ ball pressure. The result was a dismal 19-of-70 shooting (27.1 percent) and only two Bruins in double-figures scoring: Josh Shipp (19) and Nikola Dragovic (12).
“We had good looks,” said freshman Jrue Holiday, who was held to just one point on 0-of-8 shooting in 31 minutes. “They just weren’t falling tonight.”
The Bruins fell behind early, allowing a desperate Trojans team to jump to an early 18-9 lead on a highlight dunk by USC freshman DeMar DeRozan, just two of his game-high 21 points. After an offensive foul call on UCLA forward James Keefe, USC guard Dwight Lewis hit a jumper to push the lead to 20-9 with 12:01 left. A 19-13 UCLA run over the rest of the half cut the deficit 33-28 at halftime.
“I thought we took some shots that may have been hurried,” Howland said. “We didn’t handle their pressure well. They did a good job at pressuring and we have to execute better against pressure.”
USC maintained a comfortable lead for the majority of the second half, with a defense that held UCLA to 24.4 percent shooting (10-of-41) in the second half and an efficient offense that shot 51.1 percent for the night.
When Hackett’s free throw with 2:44 left in the game pushed the advantage to 15 points at 57-42, the game appeared to be sealed.
Yet a furious 13-3 UCLA run that recalled memories of Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 two years ago pulled the Bruins to within five points with 1:05 to go. But the Bruins were unable to complete the comeback, done in by an inability to score down the stretch.
“You have to get everything to go right to be able to come back from that big a deficit,” Howland said.
It was a struggle for UCLA point guard Darren Collison the whole night, a bad combination of a back that is still hurting from last week’s game against Oregon and a matchup with a physical guard in Hackett. The senior scored four points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field, while turning the ball over seven times.
After the game Howland said that playing on back-to-back nights limited what Collison was able to do on the floor.
Collison did not share the same viewpoint.
“No excuses.”
The loss leaves the Bruins disappointed, failing to repeat as tournament champions and failing to secure a higher seed. Yet after the game, all the focus was on the game at hand.
“Right now it doesn’t matter; it is what it is,” Collison said. “I feel like every loss, every game that we lost is because of us. We didn’t play to our level of ability.”
Senior Alfred Aboya, who scored six points on 2-of-9 shooting and a veteran of three Final Fours, believes the Bruins are not discouraged.
“I don’t think this team’s ready to go home yet,” Aboya said. “It’s a whole new season starting.”
As to whether this team will be a dangerous team to play come NCAA Tournament time, Aboya’s eyes lit up.
“UCLA’s always a dangerous team.”