Things get better for Bruins on court, worse off it
UCLA overcomes slow start to beat Cal State Bakersfield, 75-64, for its first win of the season, but starting forward Nikola Dragovic is suspended after being charged with felony assault.
By David Wharton
The Los Angeles Times
November 21, 2009
An already tough season got a little tougher for the UCLA basketball team on Friday night.
The Bruins woke up from a first-half daze to scramble back and defeat Cal State Bakersfield, 75-64, earning their first victory of the new season.
But they had already suffered a significant loss earlier in the day when the Los Angeles County district attorney's office decided to file a felony assault charge against senior forward Nikola Dragovic.
The charge stemmed from an unspecified incident at a Hollywood concert last month.
"I'm going to meet with him either tonight or tomorrow," said Coach Ben Howland, who suspended Dragovic for the game. "Try to get more information about what happened."
The only returning starter on a young roster, Dragovic was expected to play a leadership role this season. This is not the first time he has been in trouble with the law, however.
Hours before an exhibition game last season, the normally soft-spoken Belgrade native got into an argument with a former girlfriend and was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery, accused of pushing her to the ground.
The city attorney's office decided not to file charges after meeting with the player and the alleged victim, though prosecutors left open the possibility that they might revisit the case at any time for up to a year.
On Friday night, it was unclear whether Dragovic's recent legal troubles would have any effect on the prior case.
He had reported the incident to campus police and Howland shortly after it occurred. When the charge was eventually filed, he surrendered to police around 11 a.m. Friday, accompanied by his coach, and was later freed on bail.
"We don't know what the situation is," forward James Keefe said. "We don't know how long he'll be out."
As for the game, the Bruins appeared to sleepwalk through much of the first half, befuddled by Bakersfield's trapping zone defense and committing too many turnovers.
The Roadrunners, meanwhile, gained confidence with each passing minute, guard Stephon Carter guiding his team to an 11-point lead.
"I'm really proud of the kids and the way they competed," Bakersfield Coach Keith Brown said.
The tide began to turn when Keefe got a bullet pass from guard Malcolm Lee and drove to the basket. UCLA went on a 10-0 run to tie the score, 35-35, by halftime.
"Finally, we got settled down and got the ball back to the middle," Howland said. "Once we got the ball to the high post, we were able to attack and get a lot of easy shots attacking the basket."
Though Bakersfield scored first in second half, it was all UCLA after that.
The Bruins, who had shot the ball miserably in a double-overtime loss to Cal State Fullerton in their season opener Monday, built a lead with three-pointers from Jerime Anderson and Michael Roll.
Reeves Nelson, a bright spot in the opener, added a basket from the paint as Howland switched him from power forward to center, where the freshman had fewer complexities to deal with.
It was that kind of night for UCLA, on the court at least, the game looking simpler and the stat sheet offering more to celebrate.
Drew Gordon led the team with 19 points and Roll had 12. Keefe, Lee and Anderson contributed 10 each, with Lee adding six rebounds and five assists.
The Bruins shot 59% -- though they still struggled at 50% on free throws -- and outrebounded Bakersfield, 39-25.
Defensively, they held the Roadrunners to 41% shooting, Carter and Trent Blakley scoring 15 each.
The win was especially important given the Bruins' schedule next week. After a game Monday against Pepper- dine, they get thrown into the fire at the 76 Classic in Anaheim, a tournament featuring top-25 teams such as Butler, Clemson and West Virginia.
They could go into those games without Dragovic. Though Howland declined to speculate on how long the suspension might last, the coach said he would take Dragovic's earlier problem into account.
"We're a very young team," Howland said. "Right now, we're short-handed."
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UCLA 75, Cal-State Bakersfield 64
By Jon Gold
The Los Angeles Daily News
November 20, 2009 9:34 PM
Without Nikola Dragovic in the starting lineup - he was suspended indefinitely after being arrested for felony assault charges - the Bruins struggled out of the gate against the visiting Roadrunners.
UCLA (1-1) was down by as many as 11 in the first half and was still down 10 with 3 minutes, 57 seconds left in the first half, before sophomore forward Drew Gordon sparked a 10-0 run to close the half. Gordon had six points and a monstrous block of Cal-State Bakersfield's Stephon Carter that swung the momentum in the Bruins' favor.
The roll continued into the second half, as UCLA outscored the Roadrunners 17-6 in the early going of the second half and maintained a 15-point lead for much of the half by shooting 59.3 percent from the field, after shooting just 31 percent against Cal-State Fullerton.
Gordon led all scorers with 19 points, and all five Bruin starters scored in double figures, with senior guard Michael Roll chipping in 12 points and sophomore point guard Jerime Anderson, sophomore guard Malcolm Lee and senior forward James Keefe each adding 10. Carter and Trent Blakely led Cal-State Bakersfield (1-2) with 15 points each.
After saying he regretted not playing freshman forward Reeves Nelson more in the season-opening loss to Cal-State Fullerton, Howland deployed his freshmen throughout the game, with Nelson and forwards Brendan Lane and Mike Moser rotated throughout the game.
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Bruins Bounce Back; Beat Bakersfield 75-64
Nov. 21, 2009
LOS ANGELES (AP) -The young UCLA Bruins grew up just enough to avoid a second consecutive loss.
Drew Gordon led five players in double figures with 19 points and UCLA overcame upstart Cal State Bakersfield and the suspension of starter Nikola Dragovic for a 75-64 victory Friday night.
The Bruins trailed for all but the opening minute of the first half, falling behind by 11 points, before taking control over the final 20 minutes. They were stunned in double overtime by Cal State Fullerton in their opener Monday night, ending a 37-game home winning streak against unranked nonconference opponents.
"We wanted to make sure we didn't have a repeat of last time," Gordon said. "We believed in ourselves we could still do it, still pull it out."
Michael Roll added 12 points and a career-high six assists, and Malcolm Lee, Jerime Anderson and James Keefe, who started in place of Dragovic, scored 10 points each.
Trent Blakley and Stephon Carter had 15 points each and Donovan Bragg 10 for the Roadrunners (1-2), who had never played the Bruins before but showed no nerves in the first half.
"I'm really proud of the kids and the way they competed," Bakersfield coach Keith Brown said. "I still can't minimize the role that fatigue played down the stretch. We made our fair share of mistakes and it was tough to stick with them by the end."
The young Bruins, hard hit by the departure of NBA-bound players, appeared on their way to starting the season 0-2 for the first time since 2002-03 the way they played in the first half.
Using an effective zone it hadn't employed in its first two games, Bakersfield twice led by 11, the second time on Santwon Latunde's rebound and follow of a missed shot that made it 31-20 late in the half.
UCLA again struggled to make free throws - Lee missed two to start the game - but cobbled together a 14-4 run to tie it at 35 heading into the break. Gordon scored six points in the spurt.
"We got off to a rocky start," Coach Ben Howland said. "Lee had two free throws and we missed both, Jerime had a wide-open layup that rimmed out. We dug ourselves a hole."
Those problems were in addition to Dragovic's suspension, which was announced in a school statement minutes before tip-off. He was arrested earlier Friday and charged with felony assault by the Los Angeles district attorney's office.
The school said the 21-year-old senior from Belgrade, Serbia, was involved in an incident last month at a concert in Hollywood. Dragovic was booked and released from jail on $30,000 bail late Friday. It marked Dragovic's second arrest in less than a year, although charges weren't filed in a case involving misdemeanor battery last November.
"This is a second incident and that will be taken into account," said coach Ben Howland, adding that he will decide Dragovic's status on the team after finding out more. "Nikola is our only returning starter. We're a very young team and we're short-handed. I reallly feel bad for our team."
The Bruins settled down in the second half, opening on a 25-7 run that gave them a 60-42 lead. Anderson and Roll hit consecutive 3s while Gordon had four in a row, and UCLA never looked back. The Bruins shot 59 percent and took 30 less shots than they did while hitting 31 percent in the loss to Fullerton.
"We're getting more comfortable with each other as each day goes along," Anderson said. "It's going to take a while to find our identity."
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