Arizona’s outside shooting spree upsets UCLA men’s basketball

Arizona’s outside shooting spree upsets UCLA men’s
basketball

By Ross Bersot

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

TUCSON, Ariz. — Several conditions may have started the Arizona
storm which rained buckets, three-point buckets that is, all over
the UCLA men’s basketball team in an 88-79 soaking of the Bruins at
the McKale Center on Saturday.

A rare home loss to Syracuse tarnishing the Wildcats’ perfect
record on Dec. 23, an 0-2 slide through the Bay Area to begin
Pac-10 play, or the university’s indefinite suspension of starting
center Joseph Blair due to academic problems all brewed the ‘Cats
into a frenzy, and none more so than shooting guard Miles
Simon.

In a game that was supposed to be won or lost in the paint due
to Blair’s absence and UCLA’s inside strength, Simon brought the
action to the perimeter with a barrage of threes and slashing
drives to the hoop that resulted in a game-high 28 points and seven
assists.

"(Simon) had a great game," UCLA head coach Jim Harrick said.
"He was lights out. He played a great, great game."

Simon’s six for nine performance from long range was
complemented by his ability to take the ball through the Bruins’
usually impenetrable perimeter defense and score an easy two or
dish the ball to Wildcats waiting outside the three-point arc.

"They were getting inside off the dribble, which no one’s done
on us all year long," Harrick said. "They were good enough that
they played at a different level today."

Arizona’s offense was hardly a one-man attack as forward Michael
Dickerson was a perfect four for four from long range – all of
which came in the second half.

"I thought they did a great job." Arizona head coach Lute Olson
said of Dickerson and Simon. "Miles was up the whole time. Michael
really gave him the greatest backing in the second half."

With 8:33 remaining in the contest and UCLA ahead 63-61, Wildcat
point guard Reggie Geary sparked Arizona with his only trey of the
game. After Bruin guard Kris Johnson traveled, Dickerson dropped
the second of his bombs from the top of the key. Forward J.R.
Henderson sank two free throws and after a driving three-footer by
Simon, he kept the Bruins within two at 69-67 on a lay-in.

But another Dickerson strike upped the lead to five and,
following a six-foot hit from UCLA center Jelani McCoy, Simon
buried another from miles away, increasing Arizona’s lead to six
with 5:52 to play.

"We put our hands up, and there were a couple of times when we
had guys in their face," said Cameron Dollar, who led the Bruins
with seven assists. "Sometimes there’s just nothing you can
do."

As a whole, the Wildcats converted on 13 of 20 three-pointers
and shot 51.7 percent from the field – the first opponent to make
over 50 percent of its shots against the Bruin defense this
season.

"There are not a lot of chinks in their armor to tell you the
truth," Olson said. "But maybe there are certain things they don’t
do quite as well as they do other things. We felt that we had to
use our penetrating ability and then try to make some plays from
that. We didn’t always use great judgement once we made the
penetration. But we did get into the lane enough to where we had
the kickouts and we had open looks at threes."

Penetration by Simon and Geary, who tallied a game-high nine
assists, forced UCLA on its heels and as the defense collapsed to
cover the drive, the perimeter was left open for exploitation by
any of the hot-handed Wildcats. And when the Bruins concentrated on
protecting against the three, Arizona center Ben Davis and forward
Corey Williams, 15 and 10 points respectively, were the
beneficiaries.

"We’re used to somebody being able to come up and disrupt those
shots when they go by," UCLA guard Toby Bailey said. "But we had to
cover out on the three so hard that it was easy for them to go by
us, and when they did there was nobody there to stop it."

The last of Dickerson’s offerings increased the Wildcats lead to
80-73 and all but stopped the Bruins with 2:31 on the game
clock.

"We kept saying to ourselves that they can’t shoot like this the
whole game, and they just kept shooting like that," Bailey
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