Bruins Roll To Another Methodical Win

by Nestor on Dec 20, 2008 9:44 PM PST in Basketball

Ben Ball warriors march on through the out of conference season with another methodical 17 pt win over a scrappy Mercer team by a score of 76-59. Here is the early/raw box score.

Bruins got off to a great start right out of the gate and went up by a score of 14-3. The Bears then got themselves together a bit and made things interesting later in the first half by closing within 6 (29-35). Bruins closed the half strong thanks to a 3 pointer from DC and a last second put back by ND.

DC let all scorers with 20 pts and put the lock down on James Florence, Bears' leading scorer by holding him down to 9 pts. But to me the MVP for tonight was swingman MR, who started the game in place of injured JS and finished with 16 points, drainging 4 of 5 from the 3 pt line (shooting 6 of 7 overall):

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Gus Ruelas (via ESPN)

MR's game opened things up for DC and AA2. AA2 finished a workman like 14 pts and 7 boards.

Bruins still have a lot of room for improvement. They started the night playing great D but it loosened up a bit too much down low in parts of first half when Mercer was making its little run. I am sure Coach Howland will be working with ND, JK and others to tighten up the interior defense a little more in the coming days.

I will try to jot down lot more notes on tonight's game sometime tomorrow. We sure hope JS is doing fine. Anxious to hear the latest re. his injury.

So with that the thread is all yours. Let us know of your immediate post game impressions and reactions this Saturday night/early Sunday am (for those of us in the East Coast).

GO BRUINS.

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I loved our defense tonight

With the exception of a 10 minute stretch at the end of the first half, our D tonight was very solid. Aboya was doing a great job hedging up top, which led to at least a couple turnovers. I also really liked Roll’s performance on defense tonight. I’ve always been a huge fan of his, and it’s great that he’s put together two great games in a row; hopefully he can keep it up.

Yet despite the great play by AA2, MR and DC I was most impressed with Malcolm Lee. He didn’t do much of anything on offense, but I love his intensity on defense. He has such quick feet on D, which helped lead to a couple of steals. Expecting great things over the next couple of years out of him.

All around, strong performance against a pretty solid Mercer team that should compete with Belmont for their conference title. Great half time adjustments, as our D really locked down in the second half. Looking forward to another decent challenge against Wyoming.

slow down, look up

by Point Guard 08 on Dec 20, 2008 9:54 PM PST reply actions

Now that I looked at some of the numbers

both team’s FG/3 point % were almost identical, at 50% and 31. The difference was the turnovers that UCLA forced. At one point towards the end of the broadcast, I think we had 21 points off of turnovers. I’d love to see that defensive FG drop down by quite a bit, but we’re forcing the turnovers and scoring off of them, which is just as important.

slow down, look up

by Point Guard 08 on Dec 20, 2008 9:59 PM PST up reply actions

didn't get to see a ton of the game

because a bunch of family arrived today…very pleased to here MR shot consistently because thats the one of the main things we’ve really needed him to do. Sounds pretty solid though, and hopefully josh has a speedy recovery

O.A.

by Ollie on Dec 20, 2008 11:03 PM PST reply actions

Not enjoyable to hear on FSN

All the constant whining you can hear from the Mercer head coach. He complained on everything, even the obvious calls.

Great to see Michael Roll step up in Josh’s absence. Offensively the Bruins need to attack the zone more with passes into the mid-range or post area. Defensively they need to do a better job defending the middle, as too many post passes were easily made that led to points in the paint. As usual, good job of hedging by Aboya defensively. Howland will have these guys continuing to work the next couple of days until their next one.

by UCLA4Life on Dec 21, 2008 12:33 AM PST reply actions

Great to see Roll have a breakthrough game

It’s impossible to tell for certain, but I can’t help but think, if we had a healthy MR last year, how diffferent things would have been against Memphis.

An extra big guard… one who knows the offense and plays reliable team defense… who can feed the post… hit a baseline floater… and, of course, stretch the D with smart outside shots within the flow of the O.

Ah well… good job last night, MR!

"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008

by Meriones on Dec 21, 2008 8:50 AM PST reply actions

Yep

Imagine the entry passes from MR to KL.

by Nestor on Dec 21, 2008 11:58 AM PST up reply actions

view from 301B

Agree with the positive comments re: Aboya, Collison and Roll. I was surprised to see that Keefe (20 minutes) played longer than ND (19 minutes). And the box score seems to favor ND (assists, steals, block, rebounds). During the game, it seemed like ND was horrible (1-11 shooting and only his put back two was close to going in). Coach must have appreciated some effort on defense to give him so many minutes. I hope JK and ND can step up their games in conference. This team has so many options, it is fun to watch and see who has a big game. Bring on the Pac 10!

by Vanman7475 on Dec 21, 2008 9:38 AM PST reply actions