Bruins Start Slow, Beat Short Handed Sun Devils 75-58.
by Patroclus on Jan 7, 2012 9:45 PM PST
in Basketball
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PrintTo lead off the gamethread, DCBruins asked whether tonight's game would be a letdown or a blowout. Through most of the first half, it looked to be the former. Despite coming to LA with only 6 scholarship players, ASU knocked off the trogans rather easily on Thursday night, and controlled the game early at Honda Center. The Sun Devils were shooting lights out the first 10 minutes of the game, peaking with a 24-14 lead at the midway point of the 1st half. The UCLA defense finally started cracking down on the Sun Devils, and the offense started clicking, with the Bruins taking the lead for good with a Josh Smith 3-point play with 2 and a half minutes left in the first half. The game stayed close a little ways into the second half - with the Bruins going on a 20-2 run in an 8 minute span starting at 13:00 remaining to effectively end the game. Coach Howland was even able to get Tyler Trapani and some of his other walk-ons into the game for the final minute. The final score from Anaheim was UCLA 75, Arizona State 58.
As I noted in the start, Joshua Smith had recovered sufficiently from his concussion to play tonight, and looked pretty good against the undermanned ASU squad - leading the team with 18 points on 8-12 shooting, but 2-5 from the line and 4 rebounds. Travis Wear came close with 16 points and 7 boards. The day after Coach Howland talked about moving Lazeric Jones off the ball more often, Zeek shot 3-10 from the field but finished the game with 10 assists - playing a team high 38 minutes.
It is tough to take too much from tonight's result. It was a win, by a solid final margin against a conference opponent. And while the struggles in the opening minutes was another example of an all too familiar problem, the team was able to put those early issues behind them and turn on the gas. But against a team playing without its point guard and most of its depth, being able to blow a game open should not be an issue. The Bruins are now 2-2 in Pac-12 play, with a must-win game against the trogans next weekend leading into this year's Oregon road trip.
Go ahead and share your thoughts on tonight's game and the day's other Pac-12 action in here. As always, consider sharing any extended takes that you have as a fanpost. This is your UCLA/ASU postgame open thread.
GO BRUINS!
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Was at the game
Pretty big crowd. Not many empty seats on the first floor and there were quite a few people upstairs too! Much better showing than the Sports Arena that’s for sure…
Josh was a beast but could have gotten a few more rebounds. I wanted to see Stover in there more than just garbage time…he just missed a sweet dunk in the last minute.
It was nice to see Howland press the walk-on PG when he came on. The guy was so small, not his fault, and was just at the mercy of UCLA’s defense so they had to take him out. ASU got real tired down the stretch, probably gassed after U$C domination too.
Loud too
I thought this crowd was really in the game—more so than any time this year. To me, the crowd hung in there even during the dreadful spell when ASU had that biggish 10-point lead.
by peggysue69 on Jan 7, 2012 11:45 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Apparently the press was Jerime's idea
“Our defense in the second half keyed our ability to break the game open,” UCLA head coach Ben Howland said. “We had a key juncture where Jerime Anderson had the idea to press because they were short three players. That helped jump start us and pull away.”
Official game summary
That’s pretty good awareness.
Good awareness by Jerime...
telling that our coach admitted neither he nor his staff caught on to it on their own.
Roses are red, violets are blue...f*** $C.
Over 9,000 at the two games this week at Honda, 2X more than Sports Arena
Even the game vs. Penn was 6,000 at Honda, much better than any of the games at Sports Arena. We will see how many when conference games coming up at SA now that we have won a couple of games.
I can't imagine it would improve.
LA traffic is just that bad. I live on the West Side, and I seriously question crossing the 405 at certain times of the day. I can’t imagine crossing the 405 and having to deal with the 10/110 interchange to get to the Sports Arena.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
I don't know.
For the pre-conference games, the moron center sold gold and blue packets. You get all the conference sports arena games and half of the non-conference games. I know many people who bought these packages, so only some season ticket holders have had tickets to all of the game so far. Also, even at Pauley, the crowd didn’t pick up until conference play. For many like myself who work downtown during the week, orange county is a no-way with traffic on a week night, and the arena is actually very convenient. My friends from the valley also find it much easier to get to. So I’m hoping the arena attendance will pick up. Vernon and other service streets work really well from the westside.
Go Bruins!
Smith played aggresive
He went up to the basket stronger than he usually does this game. He actually dunked the ball a few times and was still able to give the ball a soft touch when he needed to. If he can show up to the games like he did tonight, we will be an much improved team.
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