BERKELEY “”mdash; Certainly UCLA’s feelings of warmth and
fuzziness following an undefeated start in the Pac-10 are gone.
Instead, the Bruins must be feeling a throbbing sensation after
being pounded inside and on the boards against Cal, leading to a
76-62 loss at Haas Pavilion on Saturday for their third straight
setback.
Then again, who knows what the Bruins (9-6, 5-3 Pac-10) are
thinking these days?
“We’re not playing with any heart right now,”
said junior guard Dijon Thompson, who led UCLA with 17 points.
“We just have to play with heart. They wanted it more,
getting more offensive boards than us. We just have to play
hard.”
The Bears (8-8, 4-3), meanwhile, won their second straight game
for the first time all season behind the performance of forward
Leon Powe, who put up the majority of his game-highs of 19 points
and 14 rebounds in the second half.
“I always want the ball,” said Powe, who came into
the contest leading the Pac-10 with 9.5 rebounds per game. “I
start calling for it before it even crosses half-court. I want it
every time.”
Playing on a surgically repaired left knee, Powe still managed
to score 12 points and grab eight rebounds in just a six-minute
span that began with Cal leading by just a point with 8:17
remaining.
The tell-tale heart of Powe, a true freshman, marked a
crossroads in the season for the Bruins, who may very well have to
clinch a third-place finish in a weak conference to make the NCAA
tournament.
So are they really Ben Howland’s cardiac kids? Or are they
just going to revert to being Steve Lavin’s losers?
Sophomore centers Michael Fey and Ryan Hollins, who have been
flip-flopped in the starting lineup in recent games, continued
their struggles, with both scoring as many points as fouls they
committed. They combined for seven rebounds ““ just half of
Powe’s total.
“If we had made some plays in terms of our rebounding, we
could have won it,” Howland said. “You’re not
going to win unless you make those tough plays on the road against
a team that’s obviously playing well.”
The Bruin big men weren’t out-rebounded on this day, tying
Cal with 38, as they did against Arizona and Stanford, but some
questionable tactics allowed the Bears to make up the rebounding
margin in the second half, coming up with boards off their own
free-throw misses multiple times.
“We just want the ball when it goes up,” said
freshman forward Trevor Ariza, who had a team-high eight rebounds.
“We’re not really thinking about boxing out. If we want
to win, that’s what we’re going to have to
do.”
Given UCLA’s weak interior defense, Cal center Amit Tamir,
more of a perimeter presence, was able to take his game down low,
finishing with 19 points. He also connected on two 3-pointers at
the start of the game to give the Bears a 14-2 lead.
UCLA did rally with a 7-0 run to take a 31-30 lead into
halftime, but Cal slapped on a second-half zone defense and scored
on four consecutive and-one plays to take a 51-47 lead.
Then Powe went off, powering past the Bruins to spark a 14-4 run
over the final 3:50 of the game, including a clock-beating jumper
to give Cal a 66-58 lead with 2:46 left.
“That was a back breaker,” Howland said.
Asked what he could do about the team’s rebounding
troubles, Howland said, “You keep teaching, keep talking
about it, keep stressing it and keep working at it.”
Otherwise, the Bruins might keep slip sliding on down the
standings.