UCLA Humbled by the Huskies

UCLA dropped to 12 and 14, 7 and 7 in the PAC-10 as Washington humiliated the Bruins 97 to 68 (29 points). The Huskies led start to finish and had a 23 points lead, 49 to 26 at the half. UCLA made 10 turnovers in the first half while playing a soft zone defense that let Washington penetrate the key for easy shots and shoot wide open threes all game long.

The Huskies intense defense caused UCLA to make 10 turnovers while taking too many threes and lots of bad shots. Washington made several runs during the half and shot a sizzling 68 percent from the floor, while making 11 threes. UCLA shot a very poor 37 percent in the half while hitting 1 for 8 from the 3 point line. Nikola Dragovic had 6 points and Reeves Nelson hit 7 points for the half. Quincy Pondexter scored 14 and Isaiah Thomas got 13 for the Huskies.

The second half was much the same as the Huskies ran the lead up to 33 points at the 10:24 mark, 76 to 43. The led see-sawed between 24 and 31 points for the rest of the game until UCLA hit the last shot to end the scoring as Washington ran out the clock.

This was the worst loss of the season for the Bruins and the 6th loss in a row for UCLA at the Huskies' home court. The only bright spot for UCLA was the play of Brendan Lane, who got 11 points in limited minutes, shooting a sparkling 5 for 6 and 1 for 2 from the 3 point line, missing the second 3 as it went all the way down and then spun out. Lane also got two rebounds, two assists and a block while making no turnovers.

For the game, UCLA shot 46.3 percent as they shot 58 percent in the second half. They made a miserable 3 of 17 threes and a poor 65.2 percent of their free throws. They were out rebounded 33 to 22 and got only 16 assists to Washington's 21. Washington also got 9 steals, UCLA had 3. UCLA finished with 18 turnovers while the Huskies made only 13. Washington shot a great 59.3 percent for the game and a super 52.4 percent from the 3 point line.

UCLA was led by Reeves Nelson with 14 points, shooting 5 for 7. Dragovic had 13 points, shooting 4 for 9 and 1 for 4 from the 3 point line. Brendan Lane scored 11 points, Jerime Anderson looked good getting 9 points on 4 for 6 shooting and 1 for 2 from the 3 point line. Malcolm Lee also scored 9 points on 1 for 9 shooting, 0 for 3 from the 3 line and 7 for 9 from the free throw line.

Michael Roll scored 6 points on 3 for 10 shooting and 0 for 3 of his threes. Tyler Honeycutt got only 4 points on 2 for 5 shooting and 0 for 2 from the 3 point line. J'mison Morgan scored 2 points making his only shot. Lee led the Bruins in rebounding with 5. Anderson and Honeycutt both had 4 assists to led UCLA in that category.

Senior Quincy Pondexter scored 20 points to lead the Huskies while Thomas got 17, Matthew Bryan-Amaning scored 12 points and Justin Holiday, Jrue Holiday's older brother, got 11 points. This was a nasty loss for the Bruins, the worst in Coach Ben Howland's career and UCLA's worst at Washington, being behind the whole game and letting Washington name the final margin. The Bruins haven't played well in Seattle for six years now but this was the baddest performance in a very poor losing season.

UCLA is now 12 and 14 for the season and 7 - 7 in conference play. They clearly have not figured out how to turn this season around and are destined to finish the year with a losing record over all unless they can win 3 of their last 4, including 2 games at home against the Oregon schools and then one of 2 at the Arizona schools. Coach Howland will have to get the Bruins on track to accomplish this challenge as Arizona and Arizona St. are ahead of UCLA in the conference standings. If they win all four, UCLA would finish with a winning record for the season and a winning conference record as well.