Freshman Arron Afflalo said earlier in the week that he
wasn’t the kind of player to force shots in trying to find
his offense.
He didn’t need to on Thursday against USC because his
offense found him.
Afflalo hit seven of his eight shots en route to scoring a
career-high 22 points in only 23 minutes of play.
“I didn’t really know my stats,” Afflalo said.
“I was caught up in the emotion of the win.”
Early on, it certainly didn’t seem that things would come
so easily. On the opening possession of the game Afflalo was fouled
on a 3-point attempt, and missed the first two free throws before
finally connecting on the third.
As it turned out, that minor stumbling block wasn’t
portentious. Afflalo scored from everywhere on the court, whether
on a fastbreak, from the 3-point line or at the charity stripe. His
offensive explosion matched the efficiency of the rest of his team,
as not a single of his shots came outside the flow of the game.
Though he had a hot hand, Afflalo made plays for others and helped
maintain UCLA’s offensive onslaught.
“He was more assertive tonight,” coach Ben Howland
said. “He had a great jump-stop and pass to Michael Fey for a
dunk. That’s just fantastic basketball.”
He likely would have gone off for a huge night had he not been
limited by foul trouble, picking up his fourth foul on a push-off
with over 10 minutes left in the second half.
But the freshman’s contributions went beyond lighting up
the scoreboard. He also snatched a career-high nine rebounds and
played his usual outstanding defense on his best friend, Trojan
freshman Gabriel Pruitt.
“Arron had a superb game tonight, especially
defensively,” Howland said. “He’s really
improving. He’s a hard worker and he’s really coming on
right now.”
Pruitt had been the Trojans’ best player of late after
averaging nearly 20 points per game in rebounding, in previous four
contests, but Afflalo kept Pruitt in check all night, limiting the
Trojans’ hottest player to only 10 points on 4-for-10
shooting.
“I wanted him to score no points,” Afflalo said.
“That’s my intention whenever I go out there to face
the other team’s best player. It’s a pride
thing.”
His work on the glass also earned Afflalo compliments from his
coach. Howland had frequently emphasized rebounding as one area
Afflalo needed to improve upon, and Thursday marked the third
consecutive game in which he grabbed a career-high in boards.
“I’m a pretty big guard, so I need to be in there
using my strength to rebound,” Afflalo said.
With the momentum of his best game as a Bruin behind him,
Afflalo hopes he and his teammates will be able to carry it over to
Sunday’s match-up at Notre Dame.
“Whenever you have a game like this, you want to go
forward,” he said. “You can’t go back.”