Improved play meant lots of winterly wins for UCLA

By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The UCLA men’s basketball team isn’t in March form
yet ““ it better hope it isn’t ““ but it
isn’t playing the way it did in November, when it looked
“¦ well, the way a Steve Lavin team usually looks in
November.

The defense has tightened up, and on offense, scoring duties
have become more distributed. Center Dan Gadzuric, who was quiet
early in the season, had a pair of good games up in the
Bruins’ trip to Washington, and his backup, sophomore T.J.
Cummings, has become a consistent source of points. Freshman point
guard Cedric Bozeman didn’t return to the court until this
past Friday, but the team managed to circumvent most
problems that were created by his absence, thanks to the play of
fellow freshman Dijon Thompson and senior Rico Hines.

In short, the Bruins played fairly well over winter break.

“We’ve come a long way, we’re starting to
gel,” junior forward Jason Kapono said. “We’re
playing more as a team. I just think it was tough coming out of the
gates, trying to blend in the freshmen with the guys that have been
here three, four years. We’re getting used to each
other.”

Here are brief summaries of the Bruins’ games that took
place over winter break:

Dec. 20, Seattle, Wash.: UCLA 85, Washington
79

Gadzuric had his first big game of the season, scoring a
career-high 23 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, as UCLA won its
first game in Seattle since 1997. Kapono and senior guard Billy
Knight chipped in 19 and 17 points, respectively.

Dec. 22, Pullman, Wash.: UCLA 79, Washington State
74

Trailing 37-29 at half, the Bruins put the ball in
Gadzuric’s hands down the stretch. Gadzuric responded by
scoring 17 of his game-high 20 points in the second half. UCLA shot
68-percent from the field in the second half.

Dec. 27, Pauley Pavilion: UCLA 65, Columbia
55

With 11:40 to play, UCLA was ahead 50-28, but the Lions came
back, edging to within four at 59-55 with 1:44 left. The Bruins hit
five of their six free throw attempts during the remainder of the
contest to preserve the win. Cummings had 18 and Kapono added
16.

Dec. 29, Pauley Pavilion: UCLA 98, Georgetown
91

Another lead almost lost. The Bruins led by 22 with 17:09
remaining, but allowed the 20th-ranked Hoyas to trim the lead to
four (95-91) with 13 seconds to go in the nationally televised
contest. Five Bruins were in double figures: Knight (20), forward
Matt Barnes (19), Gadzuric (18), Cummings (18) and Kapono (16).

Jan. 4, Pauley Pavilion; UCLA 74, Washington
62

Gadzuric got into early foul trouble and wound up playing only
six minutes in the entire game, but T.J. Cummings scored 22 points
and snagged 11 rebounds to lead the Bruins past the unathletic
Huskies, whom they outrebounded 46-29. Bozeman played seven minutes
in his first game since Nov. 28 and looked as good as he’d
looked before, scoring six points.