Published: Feb. 8, 2014 Updated: 11:19 p.m.
ROD VEAL, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
LOS ANGELES – As Norman Powell walked into the visiting locker room at Galen Center on Saturday night, with his team trailing conference bottom-feeder USC after the worst half in a series of bad ones, an explosion of anger awaited him and his teammates inside.
Last Sunday, UCLA coach Steve Alford laid into his players in Corvallis, Ore., questioning their effort after a terrible loss to Oregon State. And on the brink of disaster again, this time he turned to Powell, Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams, specifically.
“We got chewed out,” Adams said after UCLA's 83-73 victory. “We don't get chewed out much, but we felt it.”
But Adams and Anderson had done their part, keeping the Bruins in it through a terrible first half, combining for 20 points.
The rest of the team was the problem, shooting just 4 of 21 and looking helpless without either of its leading scorers on the floor.
So Powell, with his coach's angry cry for more energy fresh in his mind, knew he could provide the spark UCLA desperately needed to shake its latest lifeless stretch.
“That's my role for this team,” Powell said. “I'm the energy guy.”
And in the first five minutes of the second half, it was Powell who exploded, forcing a steal and breaking away for a layup that gave UCLA a lead it never relinquished.
But it wasn't until a few minutes later that Powell's energy finally sapped the life out of a once-raucous Galen Center. Catching the ball in the corner, Powell saw a lane and drove down the baseline, finishing with a silencing tomahawk jam.
“The other teams, they're not geared to stop him, so he can explode,” Adams said. “He scores in spurts and fast. That's really helpful when other players aren't scoring.”
On the next possession, Powell camped in the same corner and caught an outlet pass from Adams. Shooting 18 percent from beyond the arc, Powell has been the Bruins' worst 3-point shooter this season, with just one make in his last 10 tries.
But with no defender in sight, Powell lifted off without hesitation, the ball spinning softly into the net for the cherry on top of a five-minute, 19-5 run.
“I know I can knock it down,” Powell said. “I just have to keep shooting and stay confident and get back to the basics. That's what I did. (Hitting that shot), that really helped my confidence.”
For UCLA, it was just the jolt it needed as the Bruins kept at least an eight-point lead for the last 14 minutes.
Powell, though, wasn't done.
With a 12-point lead threatening to turn into a blowout midway through the second half, just like it had in the rivals' first meeting in January, Powell again found himself uncovered at the arc.
So he launched another 3-pointer, knocking down his second in a game for just the second time all season.
As the shot fell, Powell holstered an imaginary gun and smiled, with UCLA well in control and him again serving as the Bruins' desperately needed spark.
“I just had to get that heat check,” he said, smiling again.
No need to check this, though: It was Powell's hot second half, sparked by a heated halftime speech, that saved the Bruins from a potential nightmare.
Contact the writer: rkartje@ocregister.com
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