Two days before Valentine’s Day, UCLA made sure that Oregon State felt plenty of rejection.
The Bruins blocked 16 shots in their 69-61 victory over the Beavers Saturday, their fifth win in a row and ninth in their last 10 games.
Sophomore Tyler Honeycutt alone swatted eight shots, the highest number in the Pac-10 this season by a single player.
“That’s a lot of blocks,” coach Ben Howland said. “Honeycutt’s blocked shots tonight were just fantastic. He was really, really good coming from the weak side.”
Howland really wanted an easy victory. He said as much on Thursday night after UCLA (18-7, 9-3 Pac-10) played Oregon, and for the most part, he got as much on Saturday afternoon. The Bruins’ lead exceeded 20 points in the second half, but sloppy play allowed the Beavers (9-15, 4-9) to creep back within single digits in the final minute.
“It would be nice if we could keep adding on to the lead,” junior guard Malcolm Lee said. “Nobody wants to be scared at the end. We just got to stay mentally tough.”
Howland substituted four non-scholarship players into the game with less than a minute left, but pulled them back out 15 seconds later when Oregon State rattled off five straight points.
Still, he’ll take it.
“I’m rosy,” said Howland, also in a Valentine’s Day mood. “I’m trying to look at the bright side. The main thing is, we won the game.”
It was UCLA’s 13th consecutive victory in its matchups with Oregon State.
The Bruins got 19 points from Lee, who continues to show he’s more than a defensive specialist. Two days after scoring 25 in the win over Oregon, Lee again showed off an ability to finish around the rim and in transition.
Freshman center Joshua Smith was once again a factor in the paint, scoring 15 points and grabbing six rebounds in 25 minutes.
“Malcolm had another outstanding game offensively,” Howland said. “I thought Josh had a very good game, he was a real force for us inside.”
The Bruins came out of the gates firing on all cylinders as they looked to win their fifth straight. They built a 24-6 first-half lead that the Beavers cut to 29-24 heading into halftime.
The Oregon State pressure defense forced UCLA into 14 turnovers in the first half and 26 in the game.
UCLA got a number of highlight-reel plays, including a pair of fancy assists by Honeycutt to Smith and an alley-oop from Jerime Anderson to Honeycutt.
“It’s fun to do plays like that,” Smith said. “The student section, they’re out there, they’re getting loud.”
The Bruins got points from all nine of its scholarship players who saw action, including sophomore Brendan Lane, who returned to the team after missing Thursday’s game to attend a wake for his grandmother.
As UCLA pulled away in the second half, the blocks continued to pile up.
Oregon State had 31 more field goal attempts for the game, but more than half of that difference was negated by the UCLA big men. The Bruins also shot 20 more free throws.
“I thought they would pump fake more,” Smith said of the Beavers. “They just kept going up, and we just kept getting them.”