UCLA redeems itself against Oregon 72-63 with strong second-half play
Senior guard Norman Powell glides into the lane for a running hook shot in the second half, giving UCLA a 60-53 lead with 8:00 to go. Powell finished with a team-high 23 points in UCLA’s 72-63 win. (Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Men's basketball
| UCLA | 72 |
| Oregon | 63 |
By Jordan Lee
Feb. 14, 2015 5:29 p.m.
A little less than a month later, UCLA still couldn’t slow Oregon down.
Instead, the Bruins sped right past them.
After a dizzying back and forth first half, UCLA dominated the final 20 minutes to avenge its January loss and move into a third-place tie in the Pac-12 with Oregon by virtue of the Bruins’ 72-63 victory Saturday.
Senior guard Norman Powell delivered a standout performance – and several highlight plays – to lead UCLA with 23 points while freshman forward Kevon Looney collected his 13th double-double of the year by scoring 18 points on 7-11 shooting to go with 11 rebounds.
“I struggled against Oregon State and I was just trying to find a way in this game to be effective and that was attacking the middle of their zone and their man-to-man was wide open,” said Powell, who scored just four points in Wednesday’s win against the Beavers. “Man-to-man and pick-and-rolls is what I thrive on and I was able to attack the rim.”
Both offenses thrived in the opening period which more or less resembled a track meet as the two teams traded 3-pointers and sprints up and down the court in what seemed to be a defense-optional first half.
After shooting better than 60 percent in Eugene, Ore. a month ago, the Ducks (18-8, 8-5 Pac-12) again set a torrid pace from beyond-the-arc in the rematch. Oregon’s guard Jalil Abdul-Bassit hit five of seven 3-pointers in the first half while the Ducks shot 50 percent from downtown in the opening period.
But the Bruins (16-10, 8-5) kept pace in the rematch, thanks to a solid shooting effort of their own and a dominant performance in the paint. UCLA finished 7-16 from deep and regularly attacked inside en route to a 50 percent shooting performance.
UCLA outscored Oregon 34-16 down low while Powell delivered the play of the night, dribbling the ball behind his back and through his legs to split two defenders on his way to an open lane and an emphatic one-handed dunk.
“I don’t know if it’s the behind-the-back dribble he didn’t learn, the between-the-leg dribble he didn’t learn, or if it was the dunk he didn’t learn (from me),” said coach Steve Alford with a laugh. “That’s Norman. He’s SportsCenter.”
Once the dust finally cleared, the Bruins held a 41-40 advantage after the first 20 minutes.
Both squads stumbled out of the blocks offensively to open the second half as UCLA had as many turnovers as field goals – three each – before the first media timeout. Meanwhile, Oregon’s open looks evaporated as the Bruins stopped over-helping on defense.
“Really at halftime that’s what we talked about,” Steve Alford said.. “And the guys did a good job with that – we just didn’t want to over-help. We thought we could defend the drive with minimal help, not over-help.”
The Ducks did little to help themselves after a 3-pointer from Abdul-Bassit cut the Bruins’ lead to 55-53 as the combo of Powell and junior forward/center Tony Parker controlled the final 10 minutes of play.
UCLA’s lone senior scored the next seven points for the Bruins and limited the Ducks’ season-leading scorer, guard Joseph Young, to six points on 2-8 shooting in the second half. Meanwhile Parker added six second-half rebounds as UCLA outrebounded Oregon 38-24 for the game.
Coming out of a UCLA timeout, the pair hooked up on an alley-oop as Parker found a cutting Powell baseline to put the Bruins up 67-59, equaling its largest lead of the day up to that point.
“He caught my lob, which, you know, he saw coming was one of my Chris Paul plays of the day. We are really playing well,” Parker said.
But it was the Bruins’ defense that effectively put the game away as the Ducks scored just 10 points over the final 10 minutes of play and shot 34.8 percent during a second half in which UCLA never trailed.
Following a near-collapse against Stanford and a dismal final few minutes against Cal a week prior, one could’ve easily envisioned Oregon mounting a comeback win.
Instead UCLA shut the door.
“We have a better chemistry together, we learned from experience,” Looney said. We weren’t ready at the time. But we’ve grown as the season has gone on and we were ready.”
Powell said the same of UCLA’s status for its final road trip of the regular season as the team will battle Arizona State and Arizona next week.
No doubt the Bruins’ confidence and play are peaking at just the right time. And while coming away from Arizona with a pair of victories on the road is a tall task, it appears the Bruins have finally hit their stride.
