UCLA basketball: Bruins trail Oregon, 27-24, at halftime
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
What happens to UCLA when visiting Oregon isn’t confined to Corvallis.
After barely holding on to defeat Oregon State in the wake of an awful second-half performance, the Bruins came out with an uninspired effort against Oregon and trail the Ducks, 27-24, at halftime Saturday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.
It looked like it was going to be much worse for UCLA before the Bruins closed the half on an 11-2 run to wipe out most of a 12-point deficit.
UCLA sophomore forward Reeves Nelson has been a no-show except in the foul department, picking up three fouls and going scoreless in only six minutes. Fellow sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt played 19 minutes but was practially as unproductive as Nelson, scoring no points and committing three turnovers.
Honeycutt did grab five rebounds for the Bruins, who shot 43.5% to Oregon’s 36.4% but committed 12 turnovers to Oregon’s seven.
The Bruins looked out of rhythm on offense and repeatedly settled for three-point shots even though freshman center Joshua Smith had an advantage of two inches and at least 100 pounds on his Oregon counterpart, forward Tyrone Nared. Smith had five points and three rebounds.
Jeremy Jacob scored eight points and E.J. Singler had seven for Oregon, which is seeking a second consecutive victory on its new home floor after six consecutive losses. There are scattered sections of empty seats atop the building and the game does not appear to be a sellout.
Malcolm Lee and Lazeric Jones have seven points apiece for the Bruins, who trailed, 25-13, after Oregon’s Garrett Sim made a three-pointer. But Smith powered in for a layup, Jones made a pair of short pull-up jumpers, Jerime Anderson buried a three-point shot and Lee made a layup to close the gap to three points before halftime.
--Ben Bolch, reporting from Eugene, Ore.