Spread thinly, Bruins lose to Sun Devils 78-60
Freshman Forward/Guard Shabazz Muhammad and Red shirt junior forward David Wear fight for a rebound. Wear finished the game with 8 rebounds and Muhammad finished with 2 rebounds.
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 26, 2013 6:36 p.m.
TEMPE, Ariz. — Before Saturday’s game, a UCLA coach warned the Bruins that the matchup with the unranked Arizona State Sun Devils should be treated as a trap game.
After a thrilling yet exhausting win over a top-10 Arizona team on Thursday, UCLA traveled to Wells Fargo Arena missing a player from its already thin roster. From tip off, things fell flat for the Bruins.
“There was no motivation going into this game,” freshman guard Shabazz Muhammad said of the 78-60 loss. “We knew it was a trap game and we had to go out and play hard because we got a great win over Arizona, and then we came out here and didn’t play as hard.”
Coach Ben Howland offered a simpler explanation.
“As good as we were Thursday, we weren’t that good today,” he said.
Redshirt junior forward Travis Wear, UCLA’s third leading scorer, was held out because of a concussion. It didn’t take long for the Sun Devils (16-4, 5-2 Pac-12) to expose the hole left by Wear’s absence.
Junior center Jordan Bachynski logged career highs in points (22) and rebounds (15). He also blocked six shots.
“I hadn’t even heard of the guy, but he was huge,” said Muhammad, who finished with 18 points. “We had no chance for him inside.”
Wear’s replacement – his twin brother, redshirt junior forward David – struggled to keep up with Bachynski and couldn’t find a spark on offense. He finished with just five points on 2-of-12 shooting.
“I thought we were a little slow on our reactions,” Wear said. “It seemed like we were a step slow all night on defense. It was tough. They’re a big team. They’re a physical team. It caught up with us a little bit.”
Freshman center Tony Parker didn’t help take much of the load off of David Wear. Parker was held scoreless on the night and only pulled down one rebound in 13 minutes of action.
With just seven scholarship players available, fatigue quickly became an issue as all of the Bruins’ starters played for more than 30 minutes.
“We’re tired,” said freshman Jordan Adams. “It’s tough playing in the desert.”
UCLA (16-5, 6-2) would prefer to score by running on fast breaks, but Arizona State wouldn’t allow it. The Sun Devils smothered any chance of a fast break, out-rebounding the Bruins by 20 and forcing them into an ineffective half-court offense.
UCLA also had its worst shooting night of the season, connecting on just 34 percent of its shot attempts.
“We just didn’t execute,” Howland said. “Our offense was really poor.”
The Bruins return to Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday to host the USC Trojans (8-13, 3-5).
