Bruins turn offense around to win

Kansas City, MO. “”mdash; A 6-foot-9-inch, 245 pound point guard?

Maybe he isn’t, but forward Alfred Aboya auditioned nonetheless for a guard role in the last two minutes of UCLA’s 68-63 victory over Michigan State (3-1) on Tuesday.

With the score 63-61 Michigan State, Aboya stole the ball from Raymar Morgan and rumbled and stumbled his way toward a layup that was missed off of the backboard but was then dunked in by fellow forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.

Coach Ben Howland called it a “big steal but a shaky coast-to-coast finish.” But it got the job done.

Aboya picked the ball up with a solid 20 feet still to go on his drive and then banged the ball solidly off the backboard. Then, fortuitously or not, it found its way into the hands of Mbah a Moute.

“I just saw what was going to happen,” Mbah a Moute said. “Because (Aboya) took off, and then I thought he was going to pass it to Josh (Shipp), but he kept on going, so I was thinking he’s either going to pass it to me or throw it off the backboard somehow. So something was going to happen, I knew I was going to get the ball.”

The layup was followed by a go-ahead 3-pointer from Mbah a Moute with just 33 seconds to go. On that possession, Michigan State went into a zone defense, and the Bruins (5-0) passed the ball back and forth around the perimeter until, with about 10 seconds to go on the shot clock, Russell Westbrook penetrated and found Mbah a Moute in the corner for the 3.

Mbah a Moute, who has worked on his range in the offseason after coming under criticism for not being able to hit from 3 last year, felt confident it was going in.

“Oh yeah, definitely (I knew it was in),” Mbah a Moute said. “I had confidence. I’ve been telling Russell to drive hard once he attacks the zone because guys are always going to step in because he’s a good driver. I was ready. I knew the shot was going to come in. I feel really confident in my shot right now; I’ve been working on it.”

It was not all smooth sailing for the Bruins, however.

In fact, until Mbah a Moute’s shot, the Bruins did not lead in the game.

The Bruins had very little offensive flow in the first half. The ball tended to stagnate on the perimeter in the hands of Westbrook and guard Josh Shipp, and when it went inside, for the most part, it neither came back out nor went in the hoop. Center Kevin Love had two turnovers and no assists in the first half and shot just 3-of-8 from the field. While he did appear to get mugged by a succession of Michigan State defenders at times, the missed shots were shots that Howland felt he could have made.

“I thought our defense was outstanding in the first half (even though we were down),” Howland said. “We missed a bunch of (easy shots), like Kevin’s first shot of the game was a rebound that he missed putting right back in that they didn’t even contest it. So we had some bad breaks there. Russell missed a layup, we missed some layups. We were shooting 17 percent at one point and still only down six or eight.”

The Bruins took more than five minutes before scoring their first points of the game. Through the first 15:04 of the first half, no UCLA player scored except for Westbrook, Shipp and Love. Mbah a Moute broke the streak with a single free throw at the 4:56 mark. The Spartans ran a zone for parts of the game, and it stymied the Bruins in the first half.

What proved effective for the Bruins in beating the zone was pulling Love out to the perimeter and having him act as a kind of point man. The first points of the game were scored thanks to a pass from the top of the key to Shipp on a drive to the basket that he converted, and on a couple of plays in the second half Love and Shipp played a high-low game with Shipp posting up down low.

The adjustment ultimately helped the Bruins pull off a victory with essentially a two-guard rotation against a top-15 team.

The significance is not lost on Howland.

“I want to emphasize what a great win this is,” Howland said. “That is a great Michigan State team. They are very, very good and there is no question in my mind that they’re going to be deep into the NCAA (Tournament) with a chance for their fifth Final Four in the last 11 years. That’s a good team that we were able to come back on tonight. These games for us in early November are actually going to matter when they’re sitting down in a committee in March (to determine seedings for the NCAA Tournament).”

So the Bruins held aloft another trophy Tuesday for another early season tournament ““ this year the CBE Classic to go along with and last year’s Maui Invitational championship ““ but Howland’s quote is evidence that, already, their eyes are looking toward the one tournament that matters most.

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