UCLA can't protect dencourt, falls to steady Cal, 72-58

-Just when you thought the Bruins had it all figured out, they run into a senior-ladened Cal team to bring them back to earth
-Bruins started hot, but petered out in the second half OF the first half. Had some chances in the second half, but Cal kept UCLA at bay for the win
-Coach Ben Howland continued to mix it up on defense with the 2-3 zone and the man-to-man, but the team was lethargic and slow in both defensive schemes
-Michael Roll led all scorers with 22 points (four 3-pt shots)
-Malcolm Lee ineffective at the point, really seems best at slashing to the basket rather than quarterbacking the offense, 2 assists but with 5 turnovers, and 7 points
-Reeves Nelson seemed out of it, fighting an illness, perhaps? Nelson only manages a paltry 6 pts and 2 rbds
-Next up: USC Trojans (14-9, 6-5). Unlike the Bruins, the Trojans swept both Cal and Stanford at home this last week

 

Baffled Bruins continue to get home-schooled

After a 72-58 loss to California, they can't explain their woes at Pauley Pavilion, where they are 9-5 this season.

By Chris Foster
The Los Angeles Times
February 7, 2010

The pregame lead-up at Pauley Pavilion includes a video message from Coach Ben Howland, who says, "This is our house." The Bruins' players, in the locker room before home games, always remind each other, "This is the place we've got to protect," forward Nikola Dragovic said.

Yet, life under those 11 national championship banners has been anything but business as usual this season. UCLA proved that again Saturday in a 72-58 loss to California that had spectators flying for the exit as if the arena's renovation was to begin at the final buzzer.

The Bruins grabbed a 14-point first-half lead, handed it back, then spent the last 12 minutes of the game watching the Golden Bears work on the highlight video for their postseason banquet.

Jerome Randle auditioned for the final cut, hooking up with Patrick Christopher for a lob-and-dunk exclamation point on the Bears' final points. It served to underscore Coach Mike Montgomery's simple statement, "a 14-point victory is great for us here."

As a perk, the victory also keeps the Bears (15-8 overall, 7-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference) atop the standings. For the Bruins (11-12, 6-5), it was their third conference loss at home, equaling their total for the last three seasons.

UCLA's home record is 9-5, with a third of those victories coming against lightweights Cal State Bakersfield, Pepperdine and Delaware State. The 4-3 conference home record, which includes a 21-point loss to USC, means any title hopes will have to be nurtured on the road, where the Bruins play five of their last seven games.

"I just don't know what's going on," Dragovic said about the Bruins' home struggles.

He wasn't alone.

"I don't have explanation why we're not finishing games at home," guard Malcolm Lee said.

But guard Michael Roll had a theory: "We're not as good as these guys."

That became painfully clear as the game wore Saturday.

Roll made his first four shots and the Bruins seized a 22-8 lead, then wilted as the defensive pressure heated up. By halftime, the Bears were up, 37-30, a 21-point swing that left Howland "disappointed."

His mood didn't improve. California led, 48-44, with 12 minutes left. The Bruins had only two field goals and were four of 12 from the free-throw line the next 10 minutes.

"When they started heating things up with their pressure, we did not do a good job," Howland said of the first-half collapse. As for the second-half surrender, he said, "We ended up taking some bad shots, especially when the game got tight."

The Bears had no such trouble, shooting 55% from the field against token pressure. Christopher and Theo Robertson each scored 20 points. Christopher scored 12 of the Bears' last 24 points.

Other than Roll, UCLA had little to offer to fight back. Roll (22 points) was nine for 14 from the field. The rest of the Bruins were 12 for 30. Dragovic was one for eight. Freshmen Tyler Honeycutt and Reeves Nelson, key players in the Bruins' winning four of their last five games, were invisible.

"They out-manned us today," Roll said.

At home.

"It's unfortunate," Lee said. "If we had been better at home, we'd be in first by ourselves."
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UCLA basketball: Golden Bears maul Bruins, 72-58
By Chris Foster
The Los Angeles Times
February 6, 2010 | 3:17 pm

UCLA saw what it takes to remain a Pacific 10 Conference contender. California showed it to the Bruins.

The Golden Bears shook off a slow start, then zoomed past the Bruins for a 72-58 victory at Pauley Pavilion this afternoon. The victory leaves California atop the Pacific 10 Conference standings, the first team to record seven wins in league play. The Bruins, meanwhile, are faced with five of their last seven Pac-10 games on the road.

The Bruins, who led early by double digits but trailed by as many as 12 points early in the second half, got back in the game midway through the second half, cutting the deficit to 48-44 with 12 minutes left. But UCLA had only one field goal and was four of 10 from the free throw line over the next 10 minutes.

The Bears then heated up, with Patrick Christopher scoring 10 points in a 14-6 spurt. Jerome Randle’s three-pointer gave California a 70-53 lead with two minutes left.

California (15-8 overall, 7-4 in conference play) shot 55% from the field. Christopher and Theo Robertson each scored 20 points, while Randle had 14. Michael Roll had 22 points to lead UCLA (11-12, 6-5).

The Bears closed the first half with an 18-2 run to lead, 37-30, at halftime in wiping out a hot UCLA start.

The Bruins had the Bears down early. Roll’s NBA-distance three-pointer gave UCLA a 24-8 lead midway through the first half. But the Bears made 11 of 13 shots to close the half, with Robertson scoring 12 points before intermission.

UCLA led, 28-19, with seven minutes left in the half when the Bears went into their finishing kick, making four consecutive three-pointers at one point.

Roll had 12 points and three assists in the first half, but after his baseline jumper, the Bruins went the final 5:51 without a field goal.
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UCLA doesn't do mean, finishes lean in loss to Cal
By Jon Gold, Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Daily News
Updated: 02/06/2010 11:08:25 PM PST


A sneezing two-week old kitten.

A baby lamb struggling to take its first steps.

Answer: What are things meaner than the UCLA men's basketball team?

The Bruins once again struggled to put their foot down, once again refused to keep a big lead, once again looked on helplessly as a struggling team righted itself and left them in the dust.

UCLA watched an 11-point lead turn into a seven-point deficit in just eight minutes to close the first half, and Cal cruised down the stretch to a 72-58 win at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.

"When we get big leads, we kind of get too comfortable, then they start to chip away at it," UCLA freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt said. "We think we can just turn it on when we want, and we haven't been able to do that. We need to keep the pressure on them."

Instead, Cal was the one that put on the pressure.

With a senior-laden, guard-heavy lineup, the Bears flustered UCLA's two young ballhandlers - Honeycutt and sophomore guard Malcolm Lee - into a combined nine turnovers, after the team committed just five in a win over Stanford on Thursday.

After the Bruins jumped out to a 14-point lead after a 3-pointer by senior guard Michael Roll - who led all scorers with 22 points but was the only Bruin in double-figures - UCLA went cold, as Cal's big three of forward Theo Robertson and guards Patrick Christopher and Jerome Randle started to heat up.

Robertson and Christopher each had 20 points and Randle added 14 on four 3-pointers as the Bears went on a 29-6 run to close the first half and start the second.
"We're not the kind of team that can just coast with a lead," said UCLA freshman forward Reeves Nelson, who admitted to suffering a concussion early in the game and playing through it. He finished with six points and two rebounds in 20minutes.

"We need to keep going at people like we were down by 14, I guess. I don't think it has to do with being nasty, we just need to play as best as we can at all times."

During a three-minute stretch in the second half, they did. After Cal (15-8, 7-4) built its lead to 12 points with just more than 15 minutes left, the Bruins went on an 11-2 run to close the gap to three with 11:34 remaining.

But the Bears buckled down, forced bad shot after bad shot and UCLA helped the cause by missing eight of 11 free throws down the stretch.

"When we made our run, we again did a poor job not knocking down our foul shots," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "Against a good team like that, you have to hit your foul shots and we didn't."

With three minutes left, Howland's frustration finally showed through as he slumped to his chair, folded his hands and looked on in disgust as Jerime Anderson missed a free throw.

This was not like Thursday, when the Bruins held strong late and clipped Stanford 77-73.

This was not like last Saturday, when UCLA (11-12, 6-5) closed out Oregon State in Corvallis with a 62-52 win.

This certainly was not like Jan. 6, when Roll hit a leaning jumper with less than two seconds left in overtime to give the Bruins a 76-75 win over the Golden Bears.

"Even if we were meaner, their guards are all seniors and they've been in some good games," Roll said. "They're good players. We knew they'd make a run back. It's not even about stepping on their throats - we just need to play better."
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Bruins lose share of first in Pac-10

CALIFORNIA 72 UCLA 58 The Bears get revenge for UCLA's earlier victory.

By MICHAEL BECKER
The Press-Enterprise
11:24 PM PST on Saturday, February 6, 2010

LOS ANGELES - There were moments early Saturday when the UCLA basketball team played like a first-place team in the Pac-10 Conference.

Then the action turned quicker than a 3-on-1 fastbreak.

A 14-point UCLA lead became a seven-point halftime deficit, which begat a 72-58 loss to California in a battle to remain in first place in a wacky and watered-down Pac-10 Conference.

While more than 10,000 fans at Pauley Pavilion seemed eager to watch UCLA knock off one of the three teams sharing first place with the Bruins entering the day, the team failed to cooperate. UCLA fans sought the exits with minutes remaining in this latest home blowout, leaving the remaining Cal fans clapping down the final seconds in victory.

When Arizona and Arizona State lost later in the day, Cal was alone in first place.

"We should have been really, really excited for this opportunity today," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "We had a great start, but we let it slip away by not being stronger."

The Bruins built a 22-8 lead eight minutes into the game by applying relentless pressure to the Cal backcourt and remaining active in their zone defense.

It wasn't until seven minutes remained in the first half that Cal finally began to figure out UCLA's zone defense, and in turn began to erase the double-digit lead. Three consecutive baskets by forward Theo Robertson and back-to-back three-pointers from Patrick Christopher pulled the Bears within one. In all, the Bears hit four consecutive threes, interrupted only by a pair of free throws by Nikola Dragovic, to take a seven-point halftime lead.

"We weren't playing with a sense of urgency on either end," Christopher said. "They would get out on a break and we weren't getting back."

Cal should not have needed any more motivation heading into Saturday's contest. Not only had the Bears lost six straight games to the Bruins, not only was this game for first place in the conference, but the Cal players remembered clearly the manner in which they lost to UCLA one month ago.

Overtime. A loose-ball scramble with two seconds remaining. A jumper by Michael Roll and a one-point win for UCLA.

But the rematch never came down to dramatics. Another UCLA run in the second half pulled the Bruins within three points, but Cal outscored UCLA 19-7 over the next eight minutes to clinch the game.

"Our defense slipped up," said Roll, who led the Bruins with 22 points.

Dragovic scored just seven points on 1-of-8 shooting. No Bruin besides Roll scored in double figures. And just two days after turning the ball over just five times against Stanford, the Bruins registered 16 against Cal.

"All losses hurt," Roll said of the wasted opportunity. "We wanted to get a sweep of California. ... We knew they were going to fight. They just outmanned us today."
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Cal puts exclamation point on win over UCLA
By Jeff Faraudo
Silicon Valley Mercury News
Posted: 02/06/2010 09:19:39 PM PST
Updated: 02/07/2010 04:26:27 AM PST


LOS ANGELES — The dirty work had been done. Cal's first victory over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in four years was assured when point guard Jerome Randle spotted teammate Patrick Christopher slashing to the basket.

He threw an alley-oop pass toward the rim and Christopher dunked it, putting the exclamation point on a 72-58 victory that keeps the Golden Bears in first place in the Pac-10.

"It was kind of like stars in my eyes," Randle said. "I had the layup, but it felt better seeing him flush the ball like that."

Christopher, who grew up in Los Angeles and never had beaten the Bruins here, said he and Randle haven't often teamed up for that play this season.

"We're saving it for the end, and the time is now," he said. "It definitely felt good, but it felt even better to get the win."

The margin of victory was Cal's biggest over UCLA at Pauley since a 104-82 rout fueled by Jason Kidd in 1993, and the outcome was crucial for the Bears (15-8, 7-4), who had lost two in a row, including a disheartening 63-60 defeat at USC two days earlier.

Things didn't start well. UCLA (11-12, 6-5) jumped out to a 22-8 lead, prompting a series of lineup changes by Cal coach Mike Montgomery.

"Obviously, had something good not happened pretty soon, it could have gotten ugly," Montgomery said. "All of a sudden we made a play — I think Jerome hit a 3. Then it was like, 'We're OK.' We started playing defense, and the rhythm of the game changed."

After a dunk by UCLA freshman Tyler Honeycutt made it 24-11, Cal outscored the Bruins 26-6 the rest of the half, punctuated by an 11-0 run to close the period. The Bears moved the ball, shot it well and knocked the Bruins off their rhythm after they made 10 of 11 shots during one early stretch.

Christopher, Theo Robertson and Randle hit consecutive 3-pointers late in the half, and Robertson fed Jamal Boykin for a layup with three seconds left that made it 37-30. The Bruins got within 55-50 with eight minutes to go, but Cal attacked the middle of their zone, answering with a 7-0 run to push the lead back to 12 points.

The contributions came from everyone.

"I felt like everybody did a little bit more of what they're capable of," Montgomery said. "I thought Jerome did a marvelous job of running the team. He really was in charge, he was patient, hit the open guy, hit shots when he had the opportunity, never really panicked."

Randle finished with 14 points and seven assists, while Christopher and Robertson each scored 20 for the Bears, who shot nearly 55 percent for the game. Jorge Gutierrez, Omondi Amoke and, especially, junior center Markhuri Sanders-Frison provided grit.

"That's my job, to be that guy who brings energy, to be an enforcer," said Sanders-Frison, who had six points and six rebounds and allowed the Bears to display a rare physical personality.

"Ferocious," Christopher called him, adding that Gutierrez and Amoke were equally important. "The glitz and glamour of scoring is all good. Those kind of players win championships."
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Cal hangs tough to earn weekend split
By Josh Herwitt (blog)
FOXSports.com, msn.com
Saturday, February 6, 2010, 07:57 PM EST [General]


LOS ANGELES — UCLA coach Ben Howland was well aware of the significance surrounding Saturday's showdown with Pac-10 favorite Cal.

Coming off a gutsy win Thursday night over Stanford, the Bruins had a chance — believe it or not — to remain in first place in the conference standings if they could score a win over the Golden Bears at Pauley Pavilion.

Capitalizing on that opportunity, however, was an entirely different story for Howland's players.

Despite jumping out to an early 14-point lead in the first eight minutes of the game, UCLA was unable to stay with Patrick Christopher, Theo Robertson and Cal's high-powered perimeter offense down the stretch, falling behind by as much as 17 in the second half before settling for a 72-58 defeat in front of 10,450.

"I was very disappointed that we turned around a 14-point lead," Howland said afterward. "That's a 28-point turnaround. The biggest thing is when they heated up their pressure, we took some quick shots, bad shots."

The Bruins came out of the gates on fire, riding the perimeter shooting of senior Michael Roll and finishing the first half with a 52.2-percent clip from the field.

But that early double-digit lead that Howland's team worked so hard to earn didn't last very long.

In fact, as soon as UCLA started to struggle with its offense and turn the ball over, Cal made sure to take advantage of the Bruins' miscues.

"Generally speaking, we made some great decisions," Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. "We didn't hurry our shots. We took some shots that were in the flow of the offense."

The Golden Bears, as a result, stormed back behind the long-range shooting of seniors Christopher, Robertson and Jerome Randle, who combined to make all 10 of Cal's 3-pointers and secure their first-ever win in Westwood.

"You have to give Cal a lot of credit," Howland said. "Their three senior guards were very good today."

With the Bruins failing to find Cal's shooters, those three each knocked down consecutive trifectas from well beyond the 3-point line to lift the Bears to a commanding 37-30 halftime lead.

"For 32 minutes, we were really good," Montgomery added. "Once we got over being sluggish, we got some good substitutions, got some energy and started to play well."

Christopher and Robertson each tallied 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting, and Randle added 14 in the win, which secured the Cal's first-place standing until at least next Thursday — when it welcomes Washington to Haas Pavilion.

And despite making only three of 10 attempts from beyond the arc after halftime, Montgomery's team shot a scorching 57.7 percent from the field in the second half.

Maybe more impressive, though, was the fact that the undersized Bears dictated the glass with a sizeable 31-23 rebounding margin and forced UCLA into 16 turnovers after the Bruins committed just five against Cal's Bay Area counterpart two days earlier.

"We couldn't get in a rhythm, and we had some key turnovers," Howland said. "The pressure bothered us."

UCLA point guard Malcolm Lee was responsible for five of those turnovers against Cal — which won at Pauley Pavilion for the first time since the 2005-06 season — while freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt had four after almost recording a triple-double Thursday vs. Stanford.

Senior guard Michael Roll, in the meantime, was the one bright spot offensively for the Bruins, leading all scorers with 22 points on 9-for-14 shooting.

Yet no one else could manage to score in double figures for UCLA, as Nikola Dragović struggled with his shot (1-for-8 for seven points) and Honeycutt came up short with only nine points in 35 minutes of action.

"On offense, our spacing between each other was very poor," Howland said.

Cal's spacing, on the other hand, was ultimately what exploited the Bruins' 2-3 zone, forcing Howland to go back to his traditional man-to-man defense in the second half due to a barrage of 3-pointers from the Bears.

In the end, though, it didn't matter what defense UCLA threw at Cal, who used every opportunity the Bruins gave them to notch a critical Pac-10 win on the road.

"Before the game, we talked about what we had to do," Montgomery said. "We had to play smart and make great decisions, and I felt we largely did that this afternoon."