UCLA 76-UC Berkeley 64:Kyle Anderson Takes Over As Berkeley Goes 0 For LA

The Bruins saw their record move to 16-4 (5-2 in the Pac-12) after this 76-64 victory over UC Berkeley on Sunday evening, moving the Bruins into 2nd place in the Pac-12.

This game started a little Wear-tastic for the Bruins as David and Travis scored 10 of UCLA's first 15 points, as well as contributing 6 rebounds in the first 7 minutes of the game. The starters got UCLA out to a 19-12 lead before the three bench members came into the game at the 12 minute mark.

The Bears quickly went on a 5-0 run to make it a two point game at 19-17 halfway through the first half. A nice pass by Kyle Anderson on an alley-oop to David Wear and an equally nice dish by Bryce Alford to Zach Lavine for a 3-pointer got the lead back up to 7 at 24-17.

David Wear continued his hot start to the game, getting up to 16 points for the game as the Bruins stretch the lead to 33-19 after a 9-2 run. Some back and forth action brought the score to 39-29 at the half.

UC Berkeley could not make shots in the first half, partially due to the Bruins defense and partially just because they were missing open shots. They shot 1-9 in 3's in the first and just 10-29 overall (34.5%).

The opening of the second half was the Kyle Anderson show as (after Norman Powell dunk to open things) he scored 7 straight UCLA points to push the lead 49-32.

UC Berkeley proceeded to go on an 15-2 run to make the score 53-47 at roughly the halfway point of the 2nd half. The run was mostly transition buckets by the Golden Bears off of turnovers and long rebounds. Jabari Bird was the driving force on the run, scoring 12 points after being held scoreless in the first half.

After a 3 by Berkeley got their deficit to just 3 points, Kyle Anderson converted an And-1 3-point play of his own to get the lead back to 6 at 58-52.

A clutch shot inside late in the shot-clock by Bryce Alford got the lead to 7 and an offensive foul on Berkeley gave UCLA the ball again, where Alford converted another bucket to give UCLA a 9 point lead with 4:20 left in the matchup.

Two foolish plays by Kyle Anderson and David Wear not calling timeouts while looking for fouls instead of being proactive gave the Golden Bears extra possessions late, luckily they only converted one of those into points, so the lead held up as the Bruins won the matchup of UC schools at 76-64

Kyle Anderson was as good as usual with a stat-filling line of 17 points on 6-11 shooting, 5 assists, and 12 rebounds

David Wear set a new career high in points with 18 and has 7 rebounds and 2 blocks, but did not score in the last 12 minutes. The Wears rebounded well in this one, combining for 13 (6 offensive boards).

Bryce Alford had a nice game off the bench, especially late in the 2nd half, scoring 13 points with 3 assists and a steal.

To be honest, the rest of the bench rotation played pretty poorly outside of the one 3-pointer by Lavine. Tony Parker and Zach combined for just 3 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists in substantial minutes. Not a great game for Jordan Adams either, who seems like a different player against decent competition (maybe that's just me, but he shoots significantly worse against above average teams).

Bird obviously had a very solid 2nd half for UC Berkeley finishing with 12, along with Richard Soloman putting up 9 points and 13 rebounds. Jordan Matthews put up 18 to lead the scoring for UC Berkeley.

Rough road trip for Berkeley, losing both after a 5-0 start.

The Bruins head to the Oregon schools next week and look to build off of this victory.

Go Bruins!