Men’s basketball allows fewest points since 2015 in win against Chaminade
Sophomore guard David Singleton scored 15 points on a career-high five 3-pointers in UCLA men’s basketball’s win over Chaminade on Tuesday. Singleton was the second-leading scorer for the Bruins and his plus-26 plus-minus was a team-high. (Joe Akira/Daily Bruin staff)
Men’s basketball
| UCLA | 74 |
| Chaminade | 48 |
By Sam Connon
Nov. 26, 2019 4:42 p.m.
A season-best performance on the defensive end wasn’t enough for the Bruins to pull away early – they needed their young shooters to come alive in the second half.
UCLA men’s basketball (5-2) bounced back from its second straight loss Monday night with a 74-48 victory over Chaminade (2-2) on Tuesday at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. But despite allowing fewer than 50 points for the first time since Nov. 29, 2015, against CSUN, the Bruins did not make quick work of the Silverswords like the host school’s previous opponents had.
The Bruins did not trail in the game, but they were unable to take a double-digit lead until the 15:25 mark in the second half. No. 4 Kansas held a double-digit lead over Chaminade for the final 32 minutes of the Jayhawks’ 93-63 victory Monday night and a 20-plus-point lead for the final 18:40.
Chaminade entered Tuesday with an 8-93 all-time record in the Maui Invitational, but it managed to enter halftime trailing UCLA by just six points. Three straight Bruin turnovers led to six straight fast-break points for the Silverswords to open the second half, and the game was tied at 22 with 18:43 left.
But that was far from UCLA’s only streak of coughing up the ball – its 18 giveaways were a season-high and its most in a nonovertime game since Feb. 2 against Washington.
Midway through the first half, the Bruins fell victim to a 4:26 scoring drought that consisted of three straight turnovers and an air ball by redshirt freshman guard Tyger Campbell. That 3-point attempt by Campbell was the fourth of UCLA’s six missed long balls in the first half, and the team would fail to sink one until there was 15:46 left in the game.
Sophomore guard David Singleton was the Bruin who drained that 3, and it was his first of five triples in the game – a new single-game career-high. Singleton was just 3-of-9 from 3-point range across UCLA’s first six games of the season, but he scored all 15 of his points Tuesday from behind the arc.
Singleton’s hot streak from long-range in the second half wasn’t enough for him to lead all Bruins in scoring, however. Freshman guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. led UCLA with 17 points and 12 rebounds – both of which were season-highs for the Camarillo, California, native.
UCLA will play in the fifth-place game Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. against No. 3 Michigan State, which defeated Georgia on Tuesday.
