Where are my Bruins that played Kansas tough last week?
Montana's Brian Qvale, right, blocks the shot of UCLA's Joshua Smith (34) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Los Angeles, Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010. Montana won 66 to 57. (AP Photo/Lori Shepler)Will Cherry's 18 leads Montana over UCLA at home
Associated Press
ESPN.COM
LOS ANGELES -- Will Cherry scored 18 points and Brian Qvale added 13 to lead Montana to a 66-57 victory over UCLA Sunday night.
The victory was the first for the Grizzlies over the Bruins in the five-game history between the two teams.
UCLA (3-4) was hopeful that returning home would help stop a losing streak, but instead lost its fourth in a row. The Bruins were coming off a confidence-building, one-point loss at No. 4 Kansas but weren't able to find their groove against the Grizzlies.
Montana (4-3) held the Bruins to 28 points in the first half by cutting off the inside pass and using a collapsing defense when UCLA was able to get the ball into the paint.
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UPSET ALERT: Griz Men's Basketball Shocks UCLA 66-57 In Los Angeles
By KECI Staff
POSTED: 10:37 pm MST December 5, 2010
UPDATED: 11:37 pm MST December 5, 2010
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- The Montana Grizzlies men's basketball team pulled off an historic upset against one of the most storied programs in NCAA history. The Griz stunned UCLA 66-57 at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles on Sunday night.
Montana (4-3) had previously been winless on the road, dropping games at Nevada and Utah. Coming off a 58-54 home loss to Portland, the Griz were heavy underdogs against a Bruin team that lost 77-76 to #4 Kansas just days earlier.
The Griz, however, led from virtually start to finish. Up 32-28 at half, Montana went on an 18-6 run midway through the second half, building a double digit lead they would never relinquish.
Will Cherry led the way with 18 points, while Brian Qvale added 13 points and ten rebounds.
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UCLA barely puts up a fight in 66-57 loss to Montana
The Bruins trail for the game’s final 26 minutes 47 seconds, their deficit reaching as many as 17 points in the second half on the way to their fourth loss in a row.
By Ben Bolch
The Los Angelinos Times
11:10 PM PST, December 5, 2010
The Bruins trail for the game's final 26 minutes 47 seconds, their deficit reaching as many as 17 points in the second half on the way to their fourth loss in a row.
This time, they could only be mad at themselves.
There were no officials to blame, just a collection of UCLA Bruins who played as if all it would take to win Sunday night was showing up.
They barely did that.
In a stunning display that stirs concerns about a repeat of last season, UCLA staggered through a 66-57 loss to Montana at Pauley Pavilion.
That would be Montana of the Big Sky Conference.
Three days after falling by a point to Kansas in the wake of a controversial last-second call, UCLA took three gigantic steps backward against a mid-major team that was coming off a four-point loss to Portland.
"I'm pretty sick right now," Bruins junior guard Lazeric Jones said. "It's terrible."
The Bruins (3-4) trailed for the game's final 26 minutes 47 seconds, their deficit reaching as many as 17 points in the second half on the way to their fourth loss in a row.
Fans started leaving when Montana's Jordan Wood went in for a layup that gave the Grizzlies a 15-point lead with 9:07 remaining. And the exodus only intensified from there.
UCLA players sat on the bench wearing forlorn looks in the final seconds, Jones wrapping a towel around his head as if it could protect him from the disaster unfolding around him. Boos cascaded through the half-empty arena after the final buzzer.
"We deserved the boos," said Bruins junior guard Malcolm Lee, who acknowledged taking Montana lightly. "Our fans came to watch us play, and we didn't give them a good showing. A lot of people anticipated us to come out and play hard, especially from our showing against Kansas, and we did the exact opposite."
UCLA was tentative on offense against Montana's zone defense and mostly went through the motions on defense, allowing the Grizzlies (4-3) to make 52% of their shots.
The Bruins shot a season-low 31.3%, with sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt scoring 11 points on three-for-12 shooting after making 11 of 15 shots against Kansas.
Montana guard Will Cherry, who scored 13 of his game-high 18 points in the second half, said he sensed dissension among the Bruins.
"I could see it in their eyes and I could see that they were bickering among one another," Cherry said. "We wanted to keep our foot on their necks."
Asked whether UCLA's players were doing enough to hold one another accountable, Jones said, "I think it's kind of tough when you're not doing that great yourself to get on someone else. We do have to do a better job of that. We still are a fairly young team."
Bruins Coach Ben Howland second-guessed himself on a variety of issues, from letting his players attend Saturday night's football game against USC to scheduling too many road games early in the season to not spending enough time practicing against a zone defense.
"Their zone was nothing like ours in practice," admitted Lee, who led the Bruins with 13 points but made only four of 12 shots.
Nevertheless, Howland said this season was not starting to remind of him of last season, when the Bruins lost six of their first eight games and went on to finish with a losing record, "because these guys like each other."
"It's early, but it's a bad loss, there's no question," Howland said. "We have to control our future by having better practices and playing harder. … The effort was just very, very weak. We have to regroup."
Click on box score to enlarge (courtesy of Yahoo Sports)
Next up, Cal Poly on Saturday. Wake up, UCLA!!!
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