UCLA Wacked by the Wildcats

UCLA played a dismal first half against the Arizona Wildcats and only a little better in the second half to lose the game 77 to 63. The Bruins shot a horrible 20.8 percent in the first half to Arizona's 41.9 percent and were behind 35 to 20 at the buzzer.

UCLA was also 0 for 7 from the 3-point line in the first half while Arizona shot 50 percent of their threes. The Bruins also were out rebounded in the half by 12, 27 to 15. The second half was better for the Bruins as they scored 43 points, shooting 60 percent from the floor and 37.5 percent from the 3-point line; but the score did not reflect the improvement as Arizona shot 55.6 percent from the floor in the second half and won the game by 14 points.

The Bruins scored the first bucket of the game, but then fell behind by six points, 10 to 4 at the 15:37 mark. UCLA went on a little run and tied the game at 10 all with 12:53 left in the half. That was the last time UCLA was even or ahead of the Wildcats as Arizona went on a 22 to 5 run to go ahead by 17 points, 32 to 15 with 4:21 left in the half.

Arizona scored the first bucket of the second half, a 3-pointer, to go up by 18 points and led by 20 points with 10:09 left in the game. The closest UCLA got to Arizona was 12 points and they ended up losing by 14. The Bruins were out rebounded by Arizona by seven, 38 to 31 for the game.

Kyle Fogg led Arizona with 25 points on 9 for 12 shooting and Jamelle Horne finished with 17 and six boards. Freshman Derrick Williams scored nine points and bad nine rebounds for the Wildcats.

Malcolm Lee and Michael Roll both scored 15 points for the Bruins, Lee shooting 5 for 13 and Roll shooting 5 for 12 and 2 for 6 from the 3-point line. Nikola Dragovic scored 11 points on 2 for 7 from the floor, 7 for 8 from the free throw line and 0 for 5 from the 3 point line. Reeves Nelson got 10 points and 8 boards for the Bruins. Jerime Anderson scored four points, James Keefe had three, Tyler Honeycutt scored 4 points and J'mison Morgan added one.

This was a very disappointing loss for the Bruins as Arizona scored at will, shooting jumpers and slicing to the rim without much defensive effort by UCLA. Arizona was quicker, faster and tougher throughout the game and the Bruins never really made a game of it.

UCLA's lack of aggressiveness was telling and signals trouble ahead as the Pac 10 race goes on the road against Stanford this coming Wednesday, with Cal next on Saturday.

In the post-game news conference, Coach Ben Howland said that UCLA's first half offense was horrible against their man to man defense. He stated that "our three leading Scores were 1 for 14" and that we had no patience and rushed our shots. UCLA gave up 10 offensive rebounds in the first half as Williams and Horne out hustled the Bruins on the boards.

There are really no positives to take from this game as Arizona came into the half-filled Pauley Pavilion with a losing record, 6-7 and then throttled the Bruins, who looked like they were half asleep most of the game. Many things will have to improve immediately if UCLA wants to achieve a winning record in the Conference.