BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Junior guard
Ray Young tries to make his way to the key in last
night’s 83-77 win over UC Santa Barbara.
By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It could have been déjà vu all over again on Wednesday
night against UC Santa Barbara.
But clutch shooting down the stretch by the UCLA men’s
basketball team and poor free throw shooting by the Gauchos helped
the Bruins (2-2) escape with a 83-77 victory over Santa Barbara
(0-4) before a crowd of just 6,927 at Pauley Pavilion.
Sophomore forward Jason Kapono finished the evening with a
game-high 24 points after struggling with 2-of-9 shooting from the
floor in the first half. Junior center Dan Gadzuric dropped 17 of
his 21 points in the first 20 minutes to keep the Bruins close and
Ray Young continued his offensive resurrection with 16 points and
six assists. Mark Hull led the Gauchos with 23 points, including
5-of-6 from beyond the arc.
“Obviously, Santa Barbara came in and played extremely
well,” UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said. “They stayed
poised and came back after they fell behind early. They knocked
down big shots and executed well against the press.”
 BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Dan
Gadzuric, at 6-foot-11, hops up for a dunk against UCSB
last night in Pauley Pavilion. Gadzuric scored 21 points for the
Bruins. The Bruins took off early. Just five seconds into the game
Young had an alley-oop slam from senior point guard Earl Watson
that evoked an eruption from the crowd.
UCLA opted to establish an inside presence from the start with
Gadzuric against an undermanned Santa Barbara squad that was
missing two starters on the night. The 6-foot-10 center got
numerous looks all around the basket, but it was his steal and
fastbreak poster jam at 16:19 that boosted the Bruin lead to 12-6,
prompting a Gaucho timeout to silence the boisterous Bruin student
section.
“Our game plan was to get the ball inside and I was able
to post up hard and get good looks,” Gadzuric said of his
breakout performance. “I am still trying to get my touch back
and do what I know I am capable of doing. When the defense
collapses on me, then I know to kick the ball out to our
shooters.”
UCLA opened up its biggest lead on the night at the 12:46 mark
of the opening frame on a Kapono rebound and putback after an
errant Young three-pointer. With an 11 point lead at 21-10, the
Bruins still didn’t really seem in control of the
contest.
UCSB went on a 19-6 run in the next four minutes and cut the
deficit to two on a Mike Vukovich backdoor lay-in. The Gauchos
knotted the score at 31 with less than five minutes remaining in
the first half on a Jjuliano Jordani basket and take their first
lead on the ensuing possession with a Nick Jones jumper.
“We have to get better at defending against dribble
penetration and contesting open shots,” Lavin said of
UCLA’s halfcourt defense. “We have to get organized in
transition after the press breaks down and scramble to rotate to
our spots to stop the open looks they got in the first
half.”
Going into the half with a 41-38 advantage, Santa Barbara traded
baskets with UCLA for the first five minutes of the second half.
But a Hull three-pointer on the right wing pushed the Gaucho lead
back up to four.
The Bruins countered by pushing the ball up the floor to get
fast break opportunities and avoid the multiple zone and man
defenses that UCSB threw at them. UCLA regained the lead for good,
bringing the score to 65-64 on a T.J. Cummings baseline jam with
eight minutes remaining in the game.
With under six minutes to go, Watson threaded the needle and
found forward Matt Barnes running the baseline for any alley-oop
jam. A Kapono three-pointer at 1:39 all but sealed the
Gauchos’ fate and helped the Bruins avoid a 1-3 start for the
first time since the 1987-88 season.
Santa Barbara went 4-for-9 from the charity stripe in the second
half and missed clutch freebies that could have kept things close.
UCLA kept the contest tight by going 7-for-25 from downtown (28
percent).
As the clock wound down in the second half, a simple gesture
displayed the Bruins’ attitude toward their second victory of
the season. Watson got the inbound pass and set the ball gently on
the floor with a look of relief; the team had played just well
enough to win.
“We’re not satisfied with our defense,” Watson
said. “We have a long way to go. But they scored less points
than our offense scored, and getting the “˜W’ is the
most important thing.”