Men’s basketball defeats Presbyterian 80-65, extending win streak to four
Sophomore guard Jaylen Hands led UCLA men’s basketball with 19 points in its win over Presbyterian on Monday night. Hands also led the Bruins with six turnovers and he shot 6-of-15 from the field. (Kristie-Valerie Hoan/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Sam Connon
Nov. 19, 2018 11:23 p.m.
The Bruins won their fourth straight game Monday night, but not without yet another second-half scare.
After allowing just 19 points in the first half – and extending its lead to 24 early in the second – No. 17 UCLA men’s basketball (4-0) saw its lead shrink to three with 7:40 left in the game before defeating Presbyterian (3-3) 80-65.
“Our pride got taken away,” said sophomore guard Kris Wilkes. “We’ve been playing a lot of great 20-minute ball, but just playing the whole game throughout needs to go up more.”
The Blue Hose shot 45 3-pointers in the game, compared to the Bruins’ 24. And while UCLA held its opponent to 19 points and 3-of-22 shooting from long range in the first half in its best defensive period since Dec. 31, 2017, guard Adam Flagler led Presbyterian to a 10-of-22 mark in the second.
“The Flagler kid got hot,” said coach Steve Alford. “He did all of his damage in the second half and we just couldn’t control him.”
Flagler scored 29 on the night, shooting 7-of-14 from deep in 36 minutes on the court. No other Blue Hose scored more than 10, despite the team going on two separate 11-0 runs in the second half.
The Bruins’ leading scorer was sophomore guard Jaylen Hands, who dropped 19 points and a team-high three 3-pointers. Hands, however, said he was not impressed by his performance due to his six turnovers.
“I was disappointed in the way I turned it over,” Hands said. “For me, this game will be really helpful to go back and watch and look at the turnovers I had and see how I can get better from there.”
As a team, UCLA turned the ball over 10 times in the first half and 11 in the second.
Redshirt freshman forward Jalen Hill made just two field goals – tied for sixth-most on the team – but he hauled in a team-high 20 rebounds. When asked if he was aware of how just how many rebounds he had during the game, Hill said he was definitely paying attention.
“Of course I (knew how many rebounds I had), I was going to go get them,” Hill said. “I was just having a lot of activity and I just did what I did for my team, stayed in my role.”
The redshirt freshman was the first UCLA player to break the 20-rebound threshold since Kevin Love did it on Jan. 26, 2008.
Hill played in a season-high 27 minutes despite the return of fellow redshirt freshman forward Cody Riley, who had missed the first three games of the season due to a jaw injury he sustained in practice.
“I thought (Riley) did some good things,” Alford said. “He’s a very good ball handler and very good passer – no assists and three turnovers, that’s not what we what. … He’ll just continue to get better as he gets more minutes and gets more games under his belt.”
With Riley added to the frontcourt rotation and Hill eating up the most rebounds for the Bruins, freshman center Moses Brown logged a season-low 27 minutes to go along with 10 points and seven rebounds. Monday’s game marked the first time Brown failed to record a double-double this season.
The UCLA interior defense held Presbyterian to four points in the paint, but Alford said his team’s inexperience showed when their defense gave in in the second half.
“This is an inexperienced team,” Alford said. “We were so dominant in the first half defensively, but we tried telling them at halftime, some of that was fool’s gold.”
The victory Monday night brought the Bruins’ winning streak to four, but they will face their first Power Five opponent of the season Thanksgiving Day when they travel to Las Vegas, Nevada to play Michigan State.
