dec 14, 2016 | ucla
men's basketball page | ARTICLE LINK
LOS ANGELES – No. 2 UCLA won its 11th straight game to open the season, notching a 102-62 win over UC Santa Barbara at Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday night.
Freshmen TJ Leaf and Lonzo Ball each recorded their fifth double-double of the season, and sophomore Aaron Holidaytallied his first career 20-point game.
Leaf led UCLA (11-0) with 25 points, including 17 in the first half, as he tied Ball for the team lead in rebounds with 10. Leaf nearly finished with a triple-double, adding a season-high eight assists. Ball also flirted with a triple-double, logging 13 points, a season-best 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Three other Bruins scored in double figures. Holiday had a career-high 20 points and season-best six assists, Bryce Alford scored 15 points and Isaac Hamilton registered 13 points.
Freshman Ike Anigbogu scored a season-high nine points and also had season-bests with seven rebound and four blocks.
Wednesday night's win marked the Bruins' second victory in five days without starting center Thomas Welsh, who continues to recover from a bruised right knee. G.G. Goloman finished with seven points and seven rebounds, starting in place of Welsh.
"To win two games and score in the hundreds, win by 20 in one and win by 40 in the other, and to not have Tom Welsh, that is encouraging," UCLA head coach Steve Alford said. "He is a big part of what we do both offensively and defensively."
UC Santa Barbara (1-7) received a game-high 11 points from Ami Lakoju and also had 10 points from Gabe Vincent. The visiting Gauchos secured their only lead of the game – 12-11 – at the 15:40 mark in the first half before UCLA ran off 17 consecutive points in less than four minutes to jump ahead, 28-12.
Leaf scored 14 of the Bruins' 17 points during that scoring spree, including two three-pointers.
UCLA extended its first-half cushion to as many as 25 points, leading 49-24, and carried a 54-30 lead into the locker room at halftime after Holiday nailed a buzzer-beating three-pointer.
The Bruins went on a 10-2 scoring run early in the second half to push their margin to 64-34, culminating in a ferocious slam dunk by Leaf. An alley-oop dunk from Holiday to Ball extended UCLA's lead to 32 (84-32) with 7:47 ot play. UCLA enjoyed its biggest cushion of the game (41 points), leading 100-59, with a little over two minutes to play.
UCLA shot 54.9 percent from the field, marking the Bruins' fourth consecutive game and ninth of the season in which the team shot at least 50 percent. The Bruins limited UC Santa Barbara to 30.1 percent shooting from the field.
UCLA scored at least 100 points for the fifth time in 11 games this season.
The Bruins return to action against Ohio State (8-2) on Saturday, Dec. 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, competing in the CBS Sports Classic for the third consecutive year. Game time is 12 p.m. UCLA's game will be nationally televised on CBS.
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