UCLA Basketball Takes On Morehead State In The Las Vegas Invitational
UCLA Basketball are set to face Morehead State in the first game of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational. The first two contests the Bruins participate in take place at Pauley Pavilion during the “regional” round, with the next game Sunday against Chattanooga. They then head to Las Vegas next week to face Nevada and Northwestern on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
But first things first, who are the Morehead State Eagles?
A team out of the Ohio Valley Conference, the Eagles play out of Morehead, Kentucky and are off to a 4-0 start. Averaging 82.0 points a game, the Eagles know how to score. They already have two games under their belt in which they put up over 100 points. In one game they won, 102-94 in overtime, against Tennessee-Martin. In another they scored 107 against Eastern Illinois, who could only muster 60 themselves. Wow, that is nice.
Morehead State shoots, but not too well. They only have a .420 shot percentage (245th in the nation) and shoot the ball an average of 61.4 times a game. Compare that to UCLA who is 29th in the nation in shot percentage with .508, shooting it 59.7 times per game. Oh yeah, the Bruins are bringing 83.0 points to the their games as well.
The Eagles are lead by guards Brent Arrington, Bakari Turner and Angelo Warner, who are all scoring in double digits. They are getting help from another guard in 5’10” Kareem Storey who is dishing off 7.4 assists per game. They Eagles have a monster on the boards as 6’11” Canadian native, Chad Posthumus, is grabbing over 11 rebounds per game. Unfortunately, he may be the Eagles only threat in the frontcourt as Warner is the second on the team, only getting 5.6 per game.
The Bruins cannot take this team lightly. This is a good test for the Bruins this early in the season. UCLA has often come out sloppy in their first four games, waiting until ten minutes in to create some sort of spark. There is no doubt the Bruins can score, with Jordan Adams, Norman Powell, Tony Parker, David Wear and Zach LaVine all scoring ten or more points per game, but this contest may require the Bruins to focus a little bit more on the defensive side.
Injury Update:
Senior Travis Wear is confirmed to play tonight. It is his first game of the season since being out due to appendicitis. Freshman Wanaah Bail is not confirmed for tonight, but he has returned to practicing.
Game Info:
Time: 8pm PT, Location: Pauley Pavilion, Westwood, TV: Pac-12 Network
Mike W.R.
Twitter: @TheBigDisco