Bruins Hold Serve At Home, Defeat Stanford 72-61
by Patroclus on Feb 9, 2012 10:25 PM PST
in Basketball
Email
PrintAs we have noted today and throughout the week, UCLA Basketball is in a tight spot in terms of making it to the Big Dance. With a 13-10 record entering the day - with a series of all-too-close conference losses and in spite of a pair of NCAA committee-frustratingly bad losses in the non-conference slate, there is still a roadmap for the Bruins to make it into March Madness, but which required the team to win tonight. While it was not the prettiest of games, UCLA was able to come out strong early, and despite some down stretches never give up that advantage in defeating the Cardinal 72-61 at the Sports Arena.
Things started up for the Bruins, and unlike the game at Maples where an early UCLA hot stretch quickly cooled, the team was able to extend that lead, ending up with a 24-9 run for the largest margin of the evening. But Stanford did start chipping away at that lead later in the half, ending with Joshua Smith on the bench with 3 fouls and the Bruin lead down to 6. Stanford made some further progress to start the second half, trimming the UCLA lead to 4 points in the first couple of minutes. To the credit of the team, as Smith picked up his 4th foul fairly early in the half, and Travis Wear joined the 4 foul club later in that half, they were able to stay composed and to hang on to that lead. There was more than one Josh in foul trouble tonight - Stanford's Josh Owens was also collecting whistles, picking up his 4th foul with nearly 6 minutes left in regulation. UCLA was able to ice the game in the final two minutes, keyed by a pair of steals with the resulting Bruin possessions taking the lead back into double digits.
Stanford was not hitting many from the field - the UCLA D Limited the Cardinal to just 35% from the field - but were able to convert their free throws. The Bruins, as is all too familiar, struggled from the line, making 58%, while hitting 47% of their shots from the field. Lazeric Jones was again UCLA's leading scorer, finishing with 21 points on 15 shots while dishing out 6 assists. Travis Wear scored 13, and Jerime Anderson had 12 points and 6 assists. Limited by foul trouble, Josh Smith finished with 7 points and 6 rebounds - making 5 of 7 from the line.
UCLA's next game is Saturday at 1pm against Cal at the Sports Arena. This is your post-Stanford open thread.
GO BRUINS!
29 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
my day / night
ALWAYS gets better with a bruin win, in anything.
Zeek really shouldered a lot of scoring for the team tonight
That can’t last forever..he’s exhausted by the end of games, god forbid we ever get into overtime, we’ll be screwed.
coaches coach and players play
but good coaching makes players better…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskies/2008670348_umen260.html
we would have at least two more wins right now if we could just shoot more consistently from the line… :(
UW lost by 25 pts to OR tonight.
During the post game show, JA mentioned that they’re practicing FT’s at the beginning of every practice, sometime in the middle of every practice, and at the end of every practice. Sure hope we see improvement moving forward as their FT % is still atrocious.
Yes, we could have. But consider the circumstances,
Oregon’s evisceration of those god damn dogs from Seattle pleases me nonetheless.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So very true indeed. Any time anyone can sock it to a team with a classless coach, I say thank you very much.
by Htse005 on Feb 10, 2012 12:33 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
At least.
And that means we could have been in first place at this point.
by Seth Chandler on Feb 9, 2012 11:20 PM PST up reply actions
Should have been
This conference is awful, and it seems to get worse every year. If the makeup of the Top 25 and our conference’s OOC record isn’t enough to convince people of that fact, then they are beyond help. Given that, there is no excuse for the situation we find ourselves in.
At least 3 losses that shouldn't have been
OSU, Washington, Stanford. We’d be 10-2, in sole possession of 1st place.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Should have beat Oregon, too.
Up 13 at the half, then we fall apart and let them score 51 points in the second half. Make it 11-1.
by Seth Chandler on Feb 11, 2012 2:13 AM PST up reply actions
interesting note from that article
“UW made 36 of 43 from the line, 83.7 percent, to UCLA’s 10 of 15” – They shot 43 fts vs 15 for us.
I'll take it.
We came out strong and shot 60% in the first half. I think they just got tired in the second half and couldn’t maintain. Their shooting % dropped off and their free throws, well…
I just don’t understand why, this far into the season, we are getting that burned out. Especially when, in most of our games, we don’t start out with the intensity that we had tonight.
Been a Bruin since birth
I think we burn out because our defense is tiring.
And we don’t have the depth we need. Also, we are a little under-talented. So everyone has to play harder to get the job done.
by Seth Chandler on Feb 9, 2012 11:23 PM PST up reply actions
Coaching failure and credit
Its the coach’s job to get the players to play a complete game. And that has not happened. There were times tonight where the lack of physical conditioning was apparent. Some of the passes lacked velocity. My sense was that the players were out of gas when this occurred. We are not in shape to play championship basketball.
That being said, we controlled the last 2 minutes except for the free throws. Other than when we were shooting free throws, we played with heart down the stretch—CBH deserves credit for the intensity during the last 2 minutes.
by peggysue69 on Feb 9, 2012 11:39 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Conditioning has been an epic failure this year.
I know there’s no depth but Coach played a full court zone press with a seven man rotation. Of course, he would never tolerate an obese player on his team.
maybe the basketball guys
can work out with the football S&C guys
Kansas starters average 26 minutes a game
We play Zeek more than 33 and Jeremy is usually over 30.
We play mostly man D
Kansas plays 9 deep. We don’t have that depth.
Inefficiency expends energy. Coach’s teams could press and play a shorter rotation because they were far more efficient.
And there is the conditioning issue. Josh’s issues force others to use more energy to cover for him.
Slow starts which require frenzied comebacks burn energy.
And not using Powell more to spell the guards has hurt.
Zeek has been an ironman and I reject his toughness.
sjh
and not to beat a dead horse...
but this brings up moser and stanback. cbh should always go nine deep because in college, you need to develop that bench or you will most definitely have down years. not saying they have equal minutes but you need that depth especially during time like the pac12 tourney…
Too early for me -- should be I "respect" his toughness, not "reject".
On east coast, 3 hour time zone diff — or is it that I’m old.
Sorry, Zeek. You are a tough kid being asked to carry a very heavy load — and I respect your response.
sjh
Not sure I agree
If we play Stover more at 5 for Josh and Travis and David as fours that helps with depth there.
I think Powell needs to play a lot more, maybe even start. He only played 13 minutes last night, is it a wonder guys get tired.
Of course, we could play some zone to rest guys as well. This is not last year when we there was a HUGE drop off from the starters to the bench (at least in potential). Powell and Stover are both better defenders then the guys in front of them. The Wears are similar. We have some options on the bench.
Totally agree
Josh Smith only played 13 minutes last night, 2 fewer than Stover, so I think the depth was used well there.
Tyler Lamb played 37 minutes, Zeke and Anderson 35. Hard to think that some of those shouldn’t go to Powell. This won’t fly in the tournament at all, especially if we have a late game then an earlier game.
Free throws…10 missed last night. I would love to see the breakdown for the season though, of 1st half percentage vs. 2nd half percentage…
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Ready for the game on saturday.
I will be attending the game on saturday and was hoping someone could recommend a decent spot to have a few beers before the game? Preferably a place where I won’t won’t get hit up by a lowlife.
if you don't wanna get hit up by lowlife's
just be very kind and tell them that you’re not interested in condoms
50 years, and I've never seen us lose a home game in person!
Dad is my good luck charm=maybe I’m his. Incredible we’re unefeated when going together.
Josh Smith looked terrible last night! Powell needs to play more!
Josh won’t fight for position to clear space, to recieve the ball in the post. Lazy, that’s why if he gets it, he’s already surrounded. Then he does the unthinkable: gets mad and runs over someone, out of immature impatience.
Wow! Teach this kid Ben…….Damn!
Jeremy misses the front end FT too much. Powell, I love you, but when shooting FT’s, after you bend your knees-Don’t hold that position for 6 seconds, -shoot the darn ball. You’re lowering your percentage everytime you think about the FT. Just 3 dribbles & shoot. please! A three gaurd attack won the game in the closing minutes..smh…Go Bruins!
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bruins Nation
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
