Men’s basketball finds confidence heading into rematch against Oregon State

In a season filled with problems, UCLA men’s basketball ran into a new one last week.

In three of the four halves against Stanford and Cal, UCLA struggled to close the half, going several minutes without scoring and allowing its opponents back into the game all three times.

In the first half at Stanford, UCLA went scoreless the final 3:29, allowing the Cardinal to cut a 16-point deficit down to six. In the second half, the Bruins went the final 5:19 without a field goal as the Cardinal stormed back from a previous 22-point deficit to cut the Bruins’ lead to just one in the final minute.

Two days later at Cal, UCLA went scoreless in the final 1:32 of the game, blowing its four-point lead as Cal scored six straight points to win.

Now, with seven games left in the regular season and teetering on the edge of toppling out of NCAA tournament contention, the Bruins (14-10, 6-5 Pac-12) need to learn how to finish strong.

The first step in doing so comes Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion against Oregon State (16-7, 7-4).

“This is playoff basketball for us,” said sophomore guard Bryce Alford. “We gotta try to win every game we can and set ourselves up.”

In their last meeting with the Beavers, the Bruins seemed flummoxed by the zone defense they faced, struggling throughout their 66-55 defeat. UCLA relied too heavily on its perimeter shooting and was ineffective at getting its bigs involved, finishing with just 20 points in the paint.

UCLA feels it has the advantage in the rematch, however.

Not only will UCLA be playing at home where they have just one loss all season – to now-No. 3 Gonzaga – but this time around, they’ll have junior forward/center Tony Parker, who missed the previous game against Oregon State with back spasms, back in the lineup.

When watching film of the previous game against Oregon State, senior guard Norman Powell said he noticed an opening in the middle of the Beavers’ zone, which presents Parker with an opportunity to play a big role this time around.

Further working in UCLA’s advantage is that Parker, after failing to register double-digit scoring in his first three games back from injury, had a return to form against Cal, finishing with 20 points and seven rebounds.

“I kind of found my stride again, which is really good,” Parker said. “It was good for my confidence getting back after feeling like an old man.”

While the Cal game ended in a loss, coach Steve Alford said all his players, not just Parker, are riding a wave of high confidence after UCLA’s Bay Area road trip, given the team’s strong play in both games. Still, the loss has the Bruins’ backs against a wall, with very little room for mistakes in this final stretch to remain in competition for an NCAA tournament bid.

Powell said Alford talked with the team before Monday’s practice, pointing at the team’s jump in RPI from the mid-to-high 60s to No. 46 in the most recent RPI rankings as a source of motivation. Yet facing two teams this week – Oregon State and Oregon – who outplayed them last month is motivation enough for UCLA.

“We’re getting ready to play two teams that had their way against us in Oregon in the first go around,” Alford said. “So we got two teams that beat us pretty good in the first go around in their building, so we gotta return that favor.”