Bruins haunted by losses to rival

Malcolm Lee tangles with a pair of Trojans last season.

Bruins haunted by losses to rival
By SCOTT M. REID
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: Jan. 7, 2011
Updated: 11:18 p.m.


LOS ANGELES –

There are reminders everywhere.

On the radio. Around town. On campus.

In recent weeks, UCLA basketball players routinely have been confronted with an all-too-familiar question.

"You're not going to lose both those games to 'SC this year, are you?" Bruins forward Tyler Honeycutt said, repeating the familiar refrain.

Not that Honeycutt and his UCLA teammates need reminding that the Bruins go into Sunday night's game against rival USC having lost three consecutive games to the Trojans.

"Still kind of hurts," Honeycutt said.

UCLA plays USC at Galen Center in the midst of its the longest losing streak against its crosstown rival since Ben Howland's first season in Westwood in 2003-04.
"Your crosstown rival is a big deal," Howland said. "It's always a big deal. So is there added importance because it's crosstown? Always."

Sunday's game carries additional weight for a Bruins team that was embarrassed by USC, 67-46, at Pauley Pavilion last Jan. 16. It was the Trojans biggest-ever victory at Pauley and the most one-sided USC victory against the Bruins anywhere since the 1940s.

"It's a big motivating factor," UCLA forward Brendan Lane said. "Coach Howland has brought it up a few times to us. We know that we were just embarrassed last year, and we lost both games to them last year so it's a real tough season to lose both your games to your rivals.

"So we have got to come out this year this weekend on their home court so that would mean a lot to us."

The current skid began when the Trojans knocked off UCLA in the 2009 Pac-10 Tournament, 65-55. The most recent USC victory was a 68-64 triumph at Galen Center last February.

But the game that haunts the Bruins is the blowout at Pauley.

"We know that they really beat up on us last year, especially at home so we're going to try and not let that happen again," UCLA forward Reeves Nelson said. "It was just embarrassing really. You don't like to lose by that much especially when everybody in the stands and at the school cares so much about the rivalry."

The Trojans beat the Bruins inside and out last January, jumping out to a 7-0 lead and then running away from a UCLA team that basically gave up in the Bruins' worst Pac-10 defeat since 2004.

"They just outhustled us, outworked us," Nelson said. "We just had a lot of problems last year and they capitalized on all of them."

USC's Dwight Lewis connected on 5 of 9 3-point attempts on the way to scoring 24 points.

The Trojans manhandled the Bruins in the paint, outrebounding UCLA, 37-22.
"It was embarrassing," Nelson said, "and we need to put on a better show and effort than that this year."