UCLA Keeps Tournament Hopes Alive With 72-63 Win Over Oregon

The UCLA Bruins (16-10, 8-5) had polished up their NCAA Tournament resume with a 72-63 win over the Oregon Ducks (18-8, 8-5) Saturday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins split the season series with the Ducks after a horrible loss up in Eugene at the end of January that saw them lose 82-64. UCLA now has wins over 2 of the 3 top teams in the Pac-12 and has moved into that vita fourth place spot in the standings.

The Bruins had come out of the gate early to smack around the sitting Ducks with a 10-2 lead two minutes into the game. Unfortunately, after a crucial early timeout, Oregon got back in the game and went on a a 21-8 run. Part of that run was due to Oregon’s Jalil Abdul-Bassit hitting five 3-pointers in the first half as the Ducks were shooting the lights out early. Abdul-Bassit ended with 7 3-pointers and ended the game with an Oregon-high 24 points.

With the Bruins hanging on, Kevon Looney and Norman Powell were getting their game going late but just in time to finally able to take back the lead, especially with some high-flying antics by Powell. Looney ended with 18 points and 11 rebounds while Powell had a team0high 23, including these two beauties…

Yeah, that happened.

UCLA Bruins

At halftime, UCLA lead 41-40.

The second half saw the Bruins in control, but by no more than 4 or 5 points for the majority of the second half. Both UCLA and Oregon had matching slumps and scores that did not exactly see the Bruins pull away or the Ducks fall behind.

It was not until about six minutes left in the game that UCLA was able to seal up the game. The Bruins were pretty consistent scoring towards the end, but it was Oregon who suffered in the shooting department as they could not hit the broadside of a Nike sweatshop. The Ducks uncharacteristically ended the game shooting 39.3%.

This win not only puts UCLA in contention for a Top 4 spot in the Pac-12 Tournament, which would give them a first-round bye, but also helps out their NCAA resume. Hopefully they can keep the momentum going as next week they travel to Arizona State and Arizona for what should be one of th hardest road trips of the season. So far, the Bruins are 2-6 on the road. Let us hope they can at least pull out one of two in the desert and continue to show the NCAA committee that the are worthing of dancing in the tourney.

Go Bruins!