Bruin twins wear out Ducks
Redshirt senior forward David Wear played a key role in an 18-4 UCLA run to open the second half. Wear finished with 11 points on 4-5 shooting. (Katie Meyers/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Kevin Bowman
March 13, 2014 11:18 p.m.
LAS VEGAS — If the Oregon Ducks ever have nightmares about the UCLA men’s basketball team, they’ll have two Bruins haunting them. But they’ll only see one face.
In their two most recent games against the Bruins, the Ducks fell victim to twins – UCLA’s redshirt senior forwards David and Travis Wear – who gave the Ducks trouble both in their matchup against the Bruins on Feb. 27 and in their 82-63 loss to the Bruins Thursday night in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals.
With the seconds in regulation ticking down in the February meeting, Travis Wear tossed a long inbound pass to David Wear, who drained a high arcing three pointer at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
Thursday night, Oregon felt déjà vu as a Wear, this time Travis, drained a three to open the game. But it was the second half where the Ducks’ horror story began.
Leading by just two at halftime, UCLA turned a nail biter into a blowout with an 18-4 run to open the second half. The run, sandwiched between baskets from each Wear, had the fingerprints of the twins all over them.
“I think it started off when (junior guard) Norman (Powell) got an offensive rebound and I just happened to be right by the basket, and I was able to get a little put back and that obviously got me going,” David Wear said.
As David Wear got going, so did UCLA, which turned a two-point lead into a 14-point advantage. During the run, the Wear twins accounted for 11 of the Bruins’ 18 points.
After combining for just 10 first-half points, David and Travis Wear combined for 15 points in the second half, David Wear finishing with a total of 11 and Travis Wear with 14.
Travis Wear attributed his success to a new strategy the Bruins employed in the second half.
“I started flashing to the post a little more to relieve pressure,” Travis Wear said. “I think that just opened things up for us offensively.”
Working from a new position on the floor gave Wear a new set of responsibilities – becoming a distributor from the high post – a role he hasn’t adopted before.
“We were doing that high post little flash and we ran a little two-man game and it was up to me to make the right decision and hit (sophomore guard) Jordan (Adams) coming off the pick or Dave setting the pick and the guy who was open,” Travis Wear said.
Wear found success in the new role, finishing the game with five assists after averaging just 1.2 coming into the game.
On top of just leading the Bruins throughout their decisive run, the Wears brought something to the game that none of their teammates could match.
“Leadership,” Powell said. “They’re fifth-year guys. This is their last time being in that Pac-12 tournament like this and they really led the second half, came out and hit down shots, made hustle plays, led by their experience and them just talking to us and pushing through everything.”
The Wears’ experience includes a trip to the Pac-12 tournament title game a year ago, in which UCLA lost to Oregon. Having already avenged that loss this year, the Bruins look to return to the title game once more. And they feel, with the Wears playing at the highest combined level they have all season, they have a shot to get there.
“I think the way we came out and executed the second 20 minutes right out of halftime, I think if we could do that for 40 minutes, I think we’re really tough to beat,” David Wear said.
