UCLA remained sharp knocking off Washington State at Pauley Pavilion, 74-62.
The zone defense is official now people. It looks like Coach Howland has come to grips with the fact this team is not athletic enough to stay in a man to man defense. Reeves Nelson and Tyler Honeycutt have become a formidable freshman duo on the boards, offensively and defensively. Nelson and Honeycutt combined for 27 points and 15 rebounds.
The Bruins pulled away in the second half, and never looked back. Sophomore standout Klay Thompson had an off game, going 5-17 from the field. I won’t jump to any conclusions and say this was a total result of the awesome zone defense by the Bruins, because it wasn’t. But did it contribute? Sure did.
Transfer freshman guard Reggie Moore kept the Cougars close, but simply couldn’t do it alone. Moore notched a career high24 points. (How many guys are going to put up career highs against us this year!? Sheesh!).
In the end, UCLA won a game they “should have” won. The Bruins must keep this momentum as they travel up north to face the Oregon schools on the road. We’ll know if they’ve turned a corner if they can come away 2-0.
Additional game notes:
1) Zone! 40 minutes of zone defense, looking better each game.
2) Nikola Dragovic maintained his solid offensive play, dropping 18pts, and connecting on 3-4 from beyond the arc.
3) Jerime Anderson continues to nurse his hip flexor. Mustafa Abdul-Hamid filled in admirably, chipping in 9 points, 2-3 from three point land.
4) The Bruins continue to struggle from the free throw line, going 16-28 for 58%.
5) This was UCLA’s first win on a Saturday all season long!
Additional reaction around the net:
LAtimes.com – Bruins roll at Pauley
Seattletimes.com – Zone diet helps UCLA get healthy
Seattlepi.com – Zoned out!
Bruinsnation.com – Finally a basketball “team” wearing those four letters shows up
Dailynews.com – UCLA beats Washington State for first Saturday win of the season
Slamonline.com (West Side Story – A Left Coast Perspective) – Game notes: Washington State at UCLA
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 5:05 pm and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.