UCLA men’s basketball leads Oregon 41-40 at halftime
By Matt Joye
Feb. 14, 2015 1:01 p.m.
Needing a win to move into a tie for third place in the Pac-12, UCLA men’s basketball faced the current third-place team, Oregon, Saturday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion.
At halftime, the Bruins set themselves up for a tightly contested second half, leading the Ducks 41-40.
UCLA opened the game with perhaps its hottest start of the season.
Senior guard Norman Powell opened the scoring with a 3-pointer from the left wing. Sprinkle in a layup from freshman forward Kevon Looney, a fastbreak score from Powell, a couple of blocks by junior center Tony Parker and a top-of-the-key 3 by Looney, and UCLA found itself with a 10-2 advantage after just two minutes.
However, three minutes later, that lead had evaporated, as the Ducks recollected themselves to tie the game at 12. Oregon continued to stay hot in the same area that hurt UCLA in its previous meeting with the Ducks last month: 3-point shooting.
Eight minutes into the game, UCLA coach Steve Alford was forced to take a timeout as Oregon led 20-14 having hit four of its six attempts from beyond the arc.
From that point on, the game devolved into a preview of the NBA’s Foot Locker Three-Point Contest taking place Saturday night. The Ducks and Bruins took turns draining threes, with a contested trey from sophomore guard Bryce Alford with just under seven minutes left in the half cutting the Oregon lead to 28-27. Looney gave the Bruins a 29-28 lead moments later with a rare 2-pointer.
Meanwhile, the Ducks were in the midst of a four minute scoring drought that finally ended when senior guard Jalil Abdul-Bassit hit, of all things, another 3-pointer – his game-leading fifth of the half.
The two teams traded leads for the next few minutes before UCLA pulled away to control a one-point lead at halftime, courtesy of a reverse through-the-legs dribble drive and tomahawk slam by Powell brought the Pauley Pavilion crowd into a frenzy with 0:52 to go.
Oregon finished the half shooting eight of 16 from three while UCLA shot five of 12.
Compiled by Kevin Bowman, Bruin Sports senior staff.
