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UCLA Bruins vs Washington State Cougars Basketball Recap

UCLA 80, Washington State 71

In this first UCLA basketball season after the death of program patriarch John Wooden, the aura surrounding this basketball school has ironically faded.

It just returned on Wednesday night at storied Pauley Pavilion, and not a moment too soon.

UCLA’s 2010-2011 season was on life support just a few weeks ago. The Bruins, under Coach Ben Howland, had lost four straight games, two of them to Virginia Commonwealth and Montana. The program was reeling and desperately needed to get back on track just to make contention for an NCAA Tournament bid a realistic possibility. The Bruins briefly held off some pressure by beating nationally-ranked BYU, but when Howland’s hoopsters fell behind Washington State by eight points at halftime of this Pac-10 season opener on Wednesday, the gloom and doom that pervaded last season’s postseason-free journey came rushing back to the surface.

Pauley Pavilion was not filled to capacity at tipoff time, and it also lacked the juice that filled the venerable building in recent seasons, when Howland guided the Bruins to three straight Final Fours and revived the memories of the Wooden years to a small but real extent. UCLA tumbled from its tournament precipice last season, and after the rock-bottom moment of the home loss to Montana (Montana!), everyone in Los Angeles had to doubt this team’s ability to climb back into tournament contention.

Now, those hopes are real once more. Staring into the face of an eight-point halftime deficit, UCLA responded against a solid conference foe.

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Washington State isn’t a national powerhouse, but the Cougars – who did make two straight tournament appearances under former coach Tony Bennett – began the 2010-2011 season in style under new bench boss Ken Bone. Wazzu whipped Gonzaga by 22 points and buried Baylor in Hawaii just before Christmas. The Cougars carried some street cred to Pauley and actually deserved to be considered a favorite. When the visitors from the Palouse accumulated a 37-29 edge at the intermission, the dreariness of Angelino hoop fans only deepened. There didn’t seem to be a way out of the darkness for the Bruins, who have regularly struggled to score ever since Kevin Love made his one (year) and done departure for the NBA following the 2008 campaign.

Then, however, just when everything seemed to be pitch black for UCLA, the Bruins lit up the night and walked away with a victory. The home team found a sparkplug in the second half, using a 20-6 run to not only take the lead over the Cougars, but post 51 points after halftime. The offensive explosion, led by Reeves Nelson and Tyler Honeycutt, left Washington State in stunned disbelief... and 0-1 in the Pac-10 standings.

Nelson scored 13 points after the halftime break, and Honeycutt was right there to back him up with 12 second-half points of his own. UCLA attacked the tin aggressively and thrived the way any team should when it discovers multiple scoring options on the floor. Washington State couldn’t lock down on any one player, as the Nelson-Honeycutt combo created great floor spacing and left the Cougars scrambling in desperation. Defense isn’t a worry for a Ben Howland team – UCLA forced 15 Wazzu turnovers on a night when the Cougars dished out only 12 assists – but offense has regularly been a problem. In the second half of this contest, the Bruins found a way to put the ball in the bucket, and suddenly, the grim tenor of a shaky season has given way to a whole lot of hope in the City of Angels.

John Wooden must be smiling.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer