you take them both and there you have
The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life."
The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life."
UCLA can't get the job done in the desert,
drops ASU game big time 78-60. I guess we'll just have to take it out on SC this
Wednesday.
ARIZONA STATE 78, UCLA 60: Bruins' week ends with thud
With forward Travis Wear out, Bruins are dominated inside by Sun Devils.
Posted: 01/26/2013 09:17:37 PM PST
Updated: 01/26/2013 11:54:22 PM PST
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ASU's Jordan Bachynski, who had 22 points and 15 rebounds against... (Mark Beblias USA TODAY Sports)
Arizona State rode the inside play of Jordan Bachynski and Carrick Felix to defeat UCLA 78-60 on Saturday and complete a sweep of the Los Angeles schools this week.
The Bruins followed an 84-73 upset of No. 6 Arizona on Thursday with their worst shooting game of the season against the Sun Devils.
"Give them credit, they did everything that they had to do, including beating us on the boards by 20, and a lot of that was we took a number of bad shots that led to blocked shots or easy rebounds for them," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "As good as we were Thursday, we weren't that good today."
The Bruins (16-5, 6-2) were without big man Travis Wear, who averages 12.2 points per game and had 15 points and eight rebounds Thursday before sitting out with a concussion Saturday.
Bachynski had 22 points and 15 rebounds, while Felix added 23 points and 11 rebounds as the Sun Devils (16-4, 5-2 Pac-12) dominated the Bruins inside the lane. Arizona State outscored UCLA 46-26 in the paint and outrebounded the Bruins 52-33.
"Coach told us we had two keys in order to win: One was rebounding and the other was win 50-50 balls. I took that to heart," said Bachynski, who also had six blocked shots. "I kind of struggled on the boards this year and I knew that's where I had to step it up. I just took it personally. I went after every board I could."
Jordan Adams scored 19 points and Shabazz Muhammad had 18 for UCLA. The Bruins, who were the best-shooting team in the conference going into the game, shot just 35 percent from the field against the Devils, including 11 of 38 in the second half.
UCLA started the game missing eight of its first 10 shots, and the Sun Devils continued to find Bachynski under the basket in taking a 39-33 lead at the half. Bachynski had 14 points and nine rebounds at the break as Arizona State outscored UCLA 28-12 in the lane.
The Bruins had swept the past four games against Arizona State over the past two seasons.
"We were really outplayed today," Howland said. "They did all the tough things. They were good at both ends of the floor."
Arizona State, which has won eight of its past 10 games, was coming off a 98-93 overtime win over USC on Thursday.
Sun Devils coach Herb Sendek said he liked what he saw of Bachynski's aggressive play.
"He played with a level of aggressiveness, not just in terms of his rebounding and shot blocks. ... He just had a good aggressive coat of armor on all day and that allowed him to play at a particularly good level for us," Sendek said.
Bachynski hadn't scored in double figures in the last three games and didn't have more than six rebounds in any of them. He had eight offensive rebounds Saturday and made 10 of 12 from the field, all from inside.
"I knew what I had to do," Bachynski said. "That just comes down to me understanding just the patience I need to develop my basketball game, to have the basketball IQ to know what to do in a particular game against different defenders."
The Sun Devils began the second half on a 17-7 run, taking a 56-40 lead with 11:17 remaining. UCLA never got closer than nine.
Bruins' up-and-down season hits a new low
TEMPE, Ariz. – Less than two days had passed since UCLA had been on top of the world, putting its home loss to Oregon firmly in the rear view and cruising to its most impressive victory of the season at No. 6 Arizona.
The emotion of the game had lifted a Bruins team that, all season long, had obliged to take the highs with the lows, riding a youth-laden roster up and down a roller coaster of momentum. But atop its biggest peak of the season thus far heading into Saturday's game at Arizona State, that thrill ride took a sharp turn downward against the Sun Devils.
Arizona State's Jordan Bachynski (13) strips the ball from UCLA's Tony Parker. Bachynski had 22 points, 15 rebounds and six blocks to lead the Sun Devils to a 78-60 victory Saturday.
ROSS FRANKLIN, AP
As the clock mercifully ran down on one of the worst games of the Bruins' season – just days after their best performance – UCLA's inexperienced roster had allowed the exact letdown it had insisted it would avoid after big victories. Never having led after the game's four-minute mark, the Bruins trudged off the court in Tempe having been thoroughly outworked and outplayed in the 78-60 defeat – their Thursday night victory feeling like a far and distant memory.
"We were so satisfied (after Arizona)," freshman Shabazz Muhammad said. "Everyone was happy. We just didn't look forward to this game as much. ... We just have to learn that, even though we get the big wins, we have to win the ones we really need."
UCLA coach Ben Howland said he couldn't sense that lack of motivation before the game. But his players seemed to be well-aware of how big of a role motivation played in the Saturday afternoon letdown.
"Even going into this game, we were like, 'This is a trap game, we've got to play hard because we just got a great win off of Arizona,'" Muhammad said. "And we came here and didn't play as hard."
"I didn't think we approached it that well," freshman Jordan Adams added. "... In our mind we were (prepared), but it didn't show."
That lack of motivation, coupled with widespread fatigue issues, resulted in a train wreck down low, as the Bruins' interior defense faltered in epic fashion without forward Travis Wear. Freshman Tony Parker and junior David Wear – both playing their most minutes of the Pac-12 season – were tasked with filling in for Travis, but neither could do anything to stop Arizona State's post attack, which routinely made the Bruins look outclassed in the paint. The Sun Devils scored 46 points in the paint – 20 more than UCLA – and outrebounded the Bruins by an almost unbelievable 20 boards.
With a four-inch advantage over UCLA's tallest player, Sun Devils center Jordan Bachynski took full advantage of Travis Wear's absence, imposing his will around the basket to finish with an impressive line of 22 points and 15 rebounds — both career-highs. But his offensive efficiency may not have even been his most valuable weapon against the Bruins, as his length on the other end led to six blocks and shook UCLA's confidence on the interior.
And with David Wear using the maximum amount of energy to try and limit Bachynski – an effort that was, obviously, to no avail – the junior forward had little left in the tank on the offensive end and struggled mightily as a result, shooting 2 of 12 from the floor.
"Ultimately, I think (the Arizona game) caught up with us," Wear said. "We were a little slow today, a little slow on our rotations, a little beat up from the last game."
As a result, the Bruins were thoroughly beat up when they left the court Saturday – a potential big-time road sweep having slipped away.
Howland called it "a learning experience," citing his team's youth. But David Wear, still tired from the 40-minute beating his team had just succumbed to, was blunter.
"We just have to realize," Wear said, "we can't let this happen again."
Bruins can't go big, so they go home losers against Arizona State
Two days after a huge victory at No. 6 Arizona, short-handed UCLA can't match up inside with taller, bulkier Sun Devils, whose big men dominate in 78-60 win.
LA Times photo gallery (link)
6:51 PM PST, January 26, 2013
TEMPE, Ariz. — Jordan Bachynski, Arizona State's big-lug-of-a-Canadian, was as good a place as any to start.
There was so much Arizona State did right, and so much UCLA did wrong, at the Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday. But where you could hang the Sun Devils' 78-60 victory was from Bachynski's 7-foot-2 frame.
It could be argued, at least Saturday, that Bachynski was as even better Canadian import to the Phoenix area than NHL hockey.
"I never heard of the guy," UCLA's Shabazz Muhammad said. "He was huge."
Literally and figuratively.
The Sun Devils found UCLA's weakness — not that it required a Where's Waldo-like search — and exploited it.
The Bruins found that living in the past, even if it was only Thursday, was a bad way to travel around the Pac-12 Conference.
Bachynski was the difference maker. He had 22 points, 15 rebounds and six blocked shots. It underscored again the Bruins' woes against teams with a strong inside presence.
"I told our guys last night, that kid is going to make a lot of money playing basketball," UCLA Coach Ben Howland said. "He blocked two or three shots and we kept testing him and he kept blocking them. We got to learn."
The Bruins (16-5 overall, 6-2 in Pac-12 play) were tutored in so many subjects.
The intensity that fueled UCLA's victory over sixth-ranked Arizona on Thursday apparently stayed in Tucson.
The Bruins trailed only 39-33 at halftime, but it seemed like they might collapse at any moment. The Sun Devils (16-4, 5-2) stretched that lead to 14 four minutes into the second half.
The Sun Devils schooled UCLA right to the end. As the seconds wound down, Arizona State's Evan Gordon was casually dribbling out the clock. Jordan Adams knocked took the ball away and raced up court.
"I was taught to play right up to the end," Adams said.
Arizona State's Carrick Felix did, hustling back to block Adams' layup at the buzzer.
It was the exclamation point.
"There was no motivation," Muhammad said. "We got such great win [Thursday]. Everyone was so satisfied. Everyone was happy. We didn't look forward to this game as much. We've got to learn, as players, even when you get big wins, you've got to win the ones you really need."
Excuses were not applicable.
True, the Bruins were without forward Travis Wear, their third-leading scorer. It shortened an already thin bench, leaving UCLA with only seven scholarship players. But it would be hard to say fatigue was an issue.
Arizona State went overtime to beat USC on Thursday, a game that ended after 11 p.m. And four Sun Devils played at least 38 minutes against the Bruins. All looked fresh at the end.
Answers lay elsewhere.
"The second half got away from us," Howland said. "We were going too much one-on-one."
UCLA was manhandled by Oregon's inside players in a loss to the Ducks a week earlier. The Bruins revisited those issues.
Bachynski had eight offensive rebounds. UCLA had eight as a team. Bachynski had career highs in points and rebounds, and his wing span made the paint a no-fly zone.
"Even when he didn't get the block, he was changing our shots," said Adams, who led UCLA with 19 points.
Arizona State had a 53-33 rebounding edge, with three players with double digits — Bachynski, Jonathan Gilling (12) and Felix (11).
The Sun Devils worked the Bruins' undersized interior like an exposed nerve. Felix, who had 23 points, made eight of 12 shots, mostly by posting up Muhammad. Bachynski made 10 of 12 shots.
"They were scoring every time," said Muhammad, who had 18 points. "We couldn't get our break going because we couldn't play any defense. That big guy did whatever he wanted inside. We feed off misses and they weren't missing."
Howland summed it up more succinctly, saying, "We didn't do a very good job on either end of the floor."
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Arizona State 78, UCLA 60: Bruins head home bruised
Lucky to be down just six points at halftime, UCLA needed to enter the second half swinging.
The Bruins proceeded to give up a 10-4 run to ASU, creating a 14-point deficit that only shrank to single digits briefly — for 16 seconds in the with just over two minutes left in the game. Less than two full days after a triumphant win over No. 6 Arizona, UCLA fell apart against the Sun Devils.
Rebounding had been the supposed emphasis throughout the week’s practices, and the Bruins actually beat the Wildcats on the boards Thursday night. But that grit did not last. ASU dominated UCLA with a 53-33 advantage on the boards. The Bruins’ next-worst margin was only -11, against UC Irvine.
Can lack of energy be blamed? UCLA looked worn out for much of the game, but it’s not like Arizona State had an advantage off the bench: two points to the Bruins’ zero. The Sun Devils essentially played their five starters the entire game, with only center Jordan Bachynski seeing fewer than 38 minutes. This, after four players eclipsed the 40-minute mark two days ago.
In their best win of the season, ASU proved itself a team with legitimate NCAA tournament prospects — a quick turnaround given their back-to-back 10th-place conference finishes. UCLA becomes a much harder team to peg, one capable of knocking off the conference’s best teams, but also one that can be maddeningly inconsistent.
Oregon’s path to the Pac-12 title, meanwhile, has been cleared. Arizona, ASU and UCLA each have two losses apiece, and none get another regular-season shot at the Ducks.
UCLA’s loss fittingly ended with Carrick Felix blocking Jordan Adams’ meaningless, last-second layup. ASU had outworked the Bruins all game; it wasn’t about to stop short.
More stats and notes:
– UCLA shot 20 of 75 from the field, beating out a 28-of-74 performance against UC Irvine as the worst of the season. The Bruins also failed to attack the basket, settling for missed 3-pointers as the second half dwindled away. They attempted a season-low six free throws, split evenly between Jordan Adams and Shabazz Muhammad. The team’s lowest mark prior was 11 in a loss to San Diego State.
– David Wear started the game by making two of three shots, but missed the remaining nine he took in the game. He also missed a wide-open dunk late in the game. Just an awful day overall for the fully healthy Wear twin, who couldn’t back up his assertion that he was as capable as Travis. It was the sort of performance that draws sympathy more than scorn.
– Speaking of Travis Wear, would his presence have changed the outcome at all? As transformative as he has been on offense lately, it’s hard to imagine how he would have limited Jordan Bachynski’s career performance. The 7-foot-2 center had a career-best 22 points and 15 rebounds, and tossed in six blocks and a steal for good measure. He missed two of his 12 shots.
– Tony Parker might have helped if his development was sped up a few months. As it stood, he picked up two fouls early and was more or less a non-factor for the rest of the game. He missed a shot and grabbed a rebound in his 13 minutes of play. Yes, he could potentially be better now had he been trusted more earlier, but he didn’t do anything notable with his biggest opportunity yet.
– Arizona State beat UCLA by 15-plus points for the first time since 2003. UCLA couldn’t finish off its first road sweep in the state since the 2007-08 season.
UCLA unable to avoid predictable letdown
January, 26, 2013
JAN 26
5:57
PM PT
Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY SportsShabazz Muhammad scored 18 points, but he wasn't surprised the Bruins had a letdown against Arizona State.Rapid reaction: ASU 78 UCLA 60
JAN 26
4:08
PM PT
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| Oh, where are thou, Tony? Norman? |
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