updated post Jan 31 2010 8:46 am
UCLA beats Oregon State: 62-52
Freshman by name only, Reeves Nelson continued his brutish ways, scoring 14 pts and pulling down 12 rbds for another double-double outing, this time at Corvallis, Oregon.
Two other Bruins scored in double-digits, Nikola Dragovic (13 pts) and Michael Roll (11 pts, 5 assists, 1 to, 5:1 a/to ratio, 1 steal).
Malcolm Lee scored 9 pts while Tyler Honeycutt had 7 pts, 3 rbds, 3 assists, 1 steal. Jerime Anderson was back in action, scoring 3 pts, dishing 3 assists, 1 to, 3/1 a/to ratio and had 1 steal.
Hero of a few recent games, Mustafa Abdul-Hamid had 3 pts, while starter James Keefe had 2 pts.
UCLA made 80% of their free throws for the game (WOW!).
The 2-3 zone looked stifling. It's allowing this group of Bruins - who have had the hardest time keeping their man in front of them when they were in the man-to-man - to start playing some serious and effective defense. It is also allowing James Keefe and Brendan Lane to play some serious productive minutes since they fit well with the zone, i.e., slow but long. Also, the shorter Nelson is not called for to bang solo with the opposing big men as much. Finally, the zone also negates the need for everyone to be running around all the time on defense, which is good for some of the banged-up players.
Great game, Bruins! Hopefully it's not simply swamping Saturdays for Thursdays.
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Splitting in Oregon helps Bruins avoid a headache
UCLA shoots 65.7% and keeps zone defense working to bounce back from a tough overtime loss.
By Chris Foster
The Los Angeles Times
January 31, 2010
Reporting from Corvallis, Ore. - The sights and sounds of relief were apparent for UCLA on Saturday.
There was Reeves Nelson's exclamation-point dunk with one second left, capping the 62-52 victory over Oregon State.
"It had been a frustrating game," Nelson said. "I guess I took it out on the rim."
There were the hoots and hollers in the locker room at Gill Coliseum afterward, an emotional pendulum swing from Thursday's long faces after the Bruins blew a 13-point first-half lead in an overtime loss to Oregon.
"This was a big relief coming back today," forward Nikola Dragovic said. "We were counting on winning against Oregon. We had the lead and lost. It hurt."
There was Coach Ben Howland's mathematical assessment on the by-the-numbers way the Bruins (10-11 overall, 5-4 in Pacific 10 Conference) can be successful the rest of the season.
"If you're going to be really competitive, you need to win all your home games. We've already lost two, and you need to split on the road," Howland said. "We got another split on the road, which is very hard in this league, and that's big."
However you frame it, there was no way to undersell the moment from the Bruins' perspective.
UCLA could be one game out of first place if California loses to Arizona today, just two days after slipping to within one game of last place. But that's the Pac-10 this season, and a reason the Bruins have hope.
"I have never seen this conference like this, certainly not since I've been here," guard Michael Roll said. "So we can move forward."
First the Bruins had to weather an annoying-like-your-little-brother Oregon State team.
The Beavers' 1-3-1 trapping zone forced 20 turnovers and had UCLA staring at a possible 0-for-Oregon swing.
From the start, this one was sloppy, with eight seconds of a rugby exhibition after the opening tip, ending with a re-jump after no one could gain possession.
"The way the game started, we could tell it was going to be an ugly game," said Nelson, who finished with a team-high 14 points and 12 rebounds. "We just had to grind it out."
The Bruins had more turnovers (12) than field goals (eight) in the first half and the pratfalls continued, including a double forehead-slapper
Oregon State's Roeland Schaftenaar posted up, then tried a behind-the-back bounce pass that was intercepted UCLA's Tyler Honeycutt, who then bounced the ball to OSU's Calvin Haynes for layup for a 30-28 Beavers lead with 15 minutes left.
But from that point on, the Bruins were anything but punch lines. They went on a 16-5 run and built a 55-40 lead with 1:40 left, then survived as Oregon State scrambled at the finish.
The Bruins did it with hot shooting, making 65.7% from the field (23 of 35).
They shot 75% in the second half.
Nelson made seven of eight shots.
Everyone who played shot at least 50% from the field.
"They like to milk the clock and use their defense to try to speed you up," guard Malcolm Lee said. "We were patient and attacked the middle. That got us easy buckets."
Nothing was easy offensively for Oregon State (9-12, 3-6), as the Bruins continued to be zone fanatics.
The Beavers shot 37% for the game against the 2-3 zone defense.
UCLA is 3-1 since adopting the zone full time.
Said Nelson: "We just keep giving ourselves chances."
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UCLA closes out Oregon State 62-52
By Jon Gold
The Los Angeles Daily News
January 30, 2010 8:52 PM
The sloppiness started early, early as in the opening tip, if one could even call it an opening tip.
It was more like a scrum, the UCLA and Oregon State men's basketball players falling to the ground, tipping over like soda cans in the wind, the ball grabbed simultaneously, a jump ball after a jump ball.
Five minutes into the teams' matchup at Gill Coliseum on Saturday night, and the clumsy squads combined for eight turnovers and just nine points.
But the Bruins got marginally less sloppy, went on a 22-7 run and ultimately fended off the harried Beavers, 62-52, to finish the first half of Pac-10 play at 5-4.
Facing a trap defense early, UCLA had trouble making the simplest of passes, the easiest of dribbles. Oregon State transitioned into 2-3 and 1-3-1 zone defenses, however, and it cost the Beavers - the Bruins had 16 turnovers in the first 24 minutes, but only four the rest of the way.
"The turnovers in the beginning were all unforced," said UCLA sophomore guard Malcolm Lee, who had nine points. "It was just careless. I don't think they were pressuring us like Oregon did; it was more on our part. How did we clean it up? We just took care of the ball more. Point blank, period. We knew that for the most part they weren't making us turn it over, we were just being careless.
"We just valued the ball more on offense."
Each possession growing more and more important - particularly as Oregon State (9-12, 3-6) turned a six-point halftime deficit into a two-point lead less than five minutes into the second half - the Bruins cleaned up and concentrated on taking high-percentage shots.
The result? Six minutes later UCLA led by eight and 10 minutes later by 13.
Unlike the Bruins' disappointing 71-66 overtime loss to Oregon on Thursday - when they let a 13-point lead disappear and shot just 39.1 percent for the game and 30.3 percent from 3-point range - UCLA hit 23-of-35 shots while holding Oregon State to 37.3 percent shooting.
"We were just being real patient," Lee said. "That zone tries to force turnovers, so we were just picking our spots - when to attack, when to pull it out. That's why although we only shot (35) times, we had a high percentage."
While the Bruins mixed the ball around, three players scoring in double figures, led by freshman forward Reeves Nelson's 14 points, the Beavers seemed eager to let Calvin Haynes take charge.
Perhaps for good reason - Haynes had 16 of his game-high 25 points in the second half of Oregon State's 51-45 win over USC on Thursday.
UCLA, though, held Haynes to 16 points on 5-of-20 shooting, including 3-of-12 from 3-point range.
Haynes did, however, bring the Beavers back on Saturday, hitting two 3-pointers and three free throws in the final two minutes as Oregon State closed a 15-point advantage with 1 minutes, 38 seconds left to a six-point gap with 32 seconds left.
"We had some dumb fouls at the end, enabled them to get back in it," said senior guard Michael Roll, who had 11 points. "I think three times we fouled them on jump shots - that stopped the clock and gave them some free throws. But luckily we made most of our free throws down the stretch and they weren't able to get that close."
UCLA made 12-of-15 free throws, temporarily righting a season-long wrong, as the team hit the 80-percent mark for the first time since Game 3 against Pepperdine, and just the second time this season.
The Bruins (10-11, 5-4) made them when they mattered, too; freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt hit a pair of free throws with 23 seconds remaining to extend the lead, and Nelson had an emphatic dunk with two seconds left to close out the Beavers.
"I just kind of was tired of the way that last minute-and-a-half went," Nelson said. "The way they were getting fouled, I was kind of upset. I tried to take it out on the rim."
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UCLA pulls away late to beat Oregon State 62-52
Silicon Valley Mercury News
The Associated Press
Posted: 01/30/2010 07:15:25 PM PST
Updated: 01/30/2010 08:06:19 PM PST
CORVALLIS, Ore.—A strong shooting night was good enough to overcome a game filled with mistakes for UCLA.
The Bruins committed 20 turnovers but shot 65.7 percent from the field in a 62-52 victory over Oregon State on Saturday night.
UCLA, led by Reeves Nelson's 14 points and 12 rebounds, finally broke the game open with a 12-2 run during a five-minute stretch that put the Bruins ahead 50-37 with 4:57 left.
They led by as many as 14, and Oregon State could get no closer than six.
UCLA (10-11, 5-4 Pac-10) had to work to find openings in the Beavers' 1-3-1 and 2-3 zones.
"We were just being real patient," UCLA guard Malcolm Lee. "That zone just wants to force turnovers. We were just picking our spots."
UCLA shot 23 of 35 from the field, including 15 of 20 in the second half. Oregon State was 19 of 51.
The Bruins weren't as patient in the first half as they were in the second, but they led 24-18 at halftime.
UCLA had 12 turnovers at the break.
The game remained close through the first 15 minutes, with neither team leading by more than three points.
UCLA then went on an 11-2 run to end the half.
Oregon State (9-12, 3-6) quickly erased its six-point halftime deficit, and Joe Burton's layup tied the score at 26 with 17:19 remaining.
The Beavers took their first lead of the second half on Calvin Haynes' basket to make to 30-28.
UCLA answered with six straight points led the rest of the way.
Five Bruins scored during the deciding 12-2 run.
"To be able to win with 20 turnovers was only due to us being able to shoot 65 percent," UCLA coach Ben Howland said.
Haynes, coming off consecutive 25-point games, was held to 16 points on 5-of-20 shooting. He scored nine of those points in the last 1:17 as Oregon State tried to close the deficit.
"We were well aware of where Calvin was," Lee said of Haynes, who was 3 of 12 from 3-point range. "We knew he was going to put up shots, so we just tried to make it difficult on him."
UCLA's Nikola Dragovic had 13 points, while teammate Michael Roll added 11 points and five assists.
Roeland Schaftenaar had 11 points for Oregon State.
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Bruins puts clamps on Haynes
By AL BALDERAS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: Jan. 30, 2010
Updated: 9:39 p.m.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Everyone throughout the Pac-10 Conference has an idea of what to expect when they're going up against Oregon State.
The Beavers are known for their pressure-style of defense that forces turnovers and essentially makes life miserable for their opponents.
Following UCLA's 62-52 victory over Oregon State on Saturday, the Bruins' defensive scheme, better known as a 2-3 zone, might be developing a reputation that is similar to Oregon State's.
The Bruins held Oregon State to 37.3 percent shooting from the floor. Better yet, they held Calvin Haynes, who scored 25 points against USC two days earlier, to 16 points. Eleven of Haynes' points came in the second half. Nine of those came in the final 1:21, after the Bruins extended their lead to 13 points.
"We did a great job on Haynes," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "He was 5 for 20 and two of his makes were desperation threes late in the game."
Jerime Anderson's return to action — he played 16 minutes — came in handy on two fronts.
The Bruins wanted an extra player in the lineup who could stand up to Oregon State's 1-3-1 zone defense. Additionally, his return allowed Howland to use an eight-man rotation, giving some of his other players a chance to rest.
"Those were 16 minutes that we didn't have on Thursday night, and that was very important," Howland said, referring to UCLA's overtime loss at Oregon. "
Anderson said it felt good to be playing again, after missing the last 31/2 games because of a hip flexor.
NOTES
Nelson scored 14 points and 12 rebounds for his first career double-double. ... James Keefe played 12 minutes despite having the stomach flu.
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UCLA finds winning formula at Oregon State
By AL BALDERAS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: Jan. 30, 2010
Updated: 11:08 p.m.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - UCLA's 2-3 zone defense turned out to be better than Oregon State's 1-3-1.
The Bruins held the Beavers to 37.3 percent shooting and earned a weekend split with a 62-52 victory over Oregon State on Saturday evening at McGill Coliseum.
The victory helped UCLA rid itself of the bad taste that came in the form of an overtime loss at Oregon on Thursday. It also improved the Bruins' Pac-10 conference record to 5-4 (10-11 overall), while keeping the Beavers in last place (3-6, 9-12).
The Bruins utilized a patient approach — something they haven't been known for — to gain the upper hand against the Beavers' pressure defense. They ended up taking fewer shots than usual (35) but had better looks on most of those attempts. They connected on 15 of their 20 second-half field goals.
"Early in the game we didn't do a good job against their pressure," UCLA coach Ben Howland said.
UCLA used a 6-0 run late in the first half to take a 24-18 lead at the intermission but found itself back on its heels during the opening minutes of the second half.
Seth Tarver, Roeland Schaftenaar and Joe Burton contributed to an 8-2 run that erased the Bruins' advantage. A layup by Calvin Haynes with 15:26 left gave the Beavers their last lead.
Reeves Nelson, who came off the bench to score a team-high 14 points, tied the score at 30 with a layup that started a 16-5 UCLA run.
The Bruins extended their lead to 55-40 with 1:38 remaining, only to give most of it back.
Oregon State crept to within six points with 31.3 seconds left before watching UCLA pull away.
"We had some dumb fouls at the end and enabled them to get back into it," said senior Michael Roll (11 points).
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UCLA basketball: Bruins sloppy but able to beat Oregon State
By Chris Foster
The Los Angeles Times
January 30, 2010 | 6:43 pm
UCLA labored throughout Saturday’s game against Oregon State, yet had enough lucid moments to come away with a 62-52 victory at Gill Coliseum.
The Bruins (10-11 overall, 5-4 in Pacific 10 Conference) were generous to a fault, turning the ball over 20 times. But the Beavers (9-12, 3-6), in the end, proved incapable of taking advantage as they shot 39% from the field.
UCLA made six of eight free throws in the final two minutes to clinch the victory.
UCLA opened the second half with three turnovers on its first four possessions. More sloppiness followed.
Oregon State’s Roeland Schaftenaar tried a behind-the-back bounce pass through the key that UCLA’s Tyler Honeycutt intercepted. But Honeycutt then bounced the ball to Beavers guard Calvin Haynes for layup for a 30-28 Oregon State lead with 15 minutes left.
From the point the Bruins (10-11 overall, 5-4 in Pacific 10 Conference play) were nearly spotless. They had only three turnovers the remainder of the game and put the Beavers away with a 16-5 run.
The Bruins led, 24-18, at halftime despite having more turnovers (12) than field goals (eight). But Reeves Nelson made his presence felt at the end of a ragged first half. He scored four of the Bruins' last six points, both on strong inside moves. He then blocked Seth Tarver’s shot at the buzzer.
Nelson finished with 14 points, Nikola Dragovic had 13 and Michael Roll added 12.
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UCLA puts away Oregon State with late 12-2 run
ESPN Los Angeles
January 30, 2010
Associated Press
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Reeves Nelson finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds and UCLA used a late 12-2 run to pull away from Oregon State for a 62-52 victory Saturday night.
Nikola Dragovic added 13 points and Michael Roll had 11 for the Bruins (10-11, 5-4 Pac-10), who rebounded from Thursday's loss at Oregon.
Calvin Haynes had a game-high 16 points for the Beavers (9-12, 3-6), and Roeland Schaftenaar added 11.
UCLA led 38-35 before going on a 12-2 run that gave the Bruins a 50-37 lead with 4:57 to play.
Oregon State got no closer than six the rest of the way.
UCLA ended the first half on an 11-2 run to lead 24-18 at halftime.
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