CHRIS BACKLEY Ray Young goes up for a
shot against Georgia Tech in the Bruins’ loss at the John Wooden
Classic in Anaheim this weekend. Georgia Tech 72
UCLA 67
By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
ANAHEIM ““ The UCLA men’s basketball team found out
too late on Saturday that they were allergic to Yellow Jackets.
The smallest of the swarm, 5-foot-11 junior point guard Tony
Akins, stung the Bruins the most with a season-high 28 points as
UCLA (2-3) lost to Georgia Tech (4-1) for the first time in school
history. The 72-67 loss at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim also
marked the first-ever Bruin defeat in the John R. Wooden
Classic.
“Georgia Tech executed really well and exposed a lot of
the things we have had problems with lately,” said UCLA
senior point guard Earl Watson. “To be honest, we’re
not a very good team right now. We have a long way to go ““
that’s no secret. We just have to learn from these
games.”
Sophomore forward Jason Kapono led the Bruins with 18 points,
but struggled offensively (2-of-10 shooting), as did the rest of
the team. UCLA shot 29 percent from the field and 22 percent from
beyond the arc.
 CHRIS BACKLEY Forward Jason Kapono
(right) puts up a shot against Georgia Tech forward Robert
Brooks in the Yellow Jackets’ 72-67 win Saturday.
The Bruin defense evaporated in the second half as the Yellow
Jackets converted 56 percent of their field goal attempts,
including 6-for-14 from downtown.
“They were the better team today,” Kapono said.
“We didn’t shoot the ball very well. They played well
on defense in their trapping sets. In the second half, we
didn’t play defense. Nineteen turnovers are not going to help
you either. We just have to get quicker on defense.”
Georgia Tech stormed out of the gates offensively, with Akins
converting a driving layup and a three-pointer from the right wing.
A pair of free throws by junior guard Ray Young and Kapono had the
Bruins trailing the Yellow Jackets 7-4 just three minutes into the
contest.
UCLA didn’t get its first basket until 11:32 on freshman
forward T.J. Cummings’ putback off an initial block at the
rim. It was the Bruins’ first points in nearly five minutes,
and it cut the early deficit to 7-6.
With less than 10 minutes to go in the opening frame, UCLA went
on a 6-0 spurt, as Young continued to penetrate into the heart of
the Georgia Tech defense to get himself to the charity stripe. A
Watson steal and fast break layup at 8:18 gave UCLA a four point
advantage, 15-11.
“We weren’t getting open looks (at the basket) in
the first half,” Akins said of Georgia Tech’s offensive
struggles. “But we have great shooters and we knew we just
needed to break UCLA down and continue to shoot as they
were.”
The Bruins would hold the same margin four minutes later when
Young got out into the open floor and found Gadzuric to his right
on the break. The junior center’s jumpstop bank shot gave
UCLA a 20-16 lead. Two possessions later, however, the Yellow
Jackets responded when Akins connected from beyond the arc and was
fouled by Watson in the process. Converting the four-point play,
Georgia Tech knotted the score at 20 apiece.
UCLA promptly went on an 8-0 run, sparked by a Gadzuric
turnaround hook and tip-in on consecutive offensive trips down the
floor to give the Bruins a 28-20 lead with under a minute to go.
Georgia Tech closed out the half with an Akins driving jumper in
the lane to go into the half trailing 28-22.
The Bruins came out with guns blazing in the second half, as
Watson connected on a three-pointer from the right wing off a pass
from junior forward Matt Barnes to stretch the lead to 31-22 just a
minute in. Both teams traded baskets as neither defense could
contain the perimeter shooting of the other. Both Georgia Tech and
UCLA resorted to staying in a matchup zone to provoke shots from
the outside.
The Yellow Jackets began to find their offensive rhythm as a
couple of Halston Lane bombs from downtown and a Marvin Lewis fast
break pull-up jumper tied the score at 40 with 13 minutes to go in
the contest. Out of their own subsequent timeout, Georgia Tech
dialed Lane from long-distance again to take its first lead since
6:39 of the opening half at 43-40.
“(Offensively), we didn’t get the ball into the
post,” said UCLA head coach Steve Lavin. “And when we
did, it was on the first swing. On the defensive end of the floor,
we let them shoot over 50 percent in the second half. We had done a
decent job in the first half. Their dribble penetration really
broke us down.”
A Gadzuric turnaround jumper on Jones with under 10 minutes
remaining would be UCLA’s last lead of the ballgame at 46-44.
A 7-0 run by the Yellow Jackets, capped by an Akins fast-break
pull-up jumper gave Georgia Tech a 51-46 advantage. UCLA would
counter with Kapono visiting the free throw line often. He went
eight-for-eight at the stripe in the second half, giving him
30-of-30 on the season. Georgia Tech looked to Akins and Lewis for
clutch shooting in response. With both teams in the double bonus
midway through the second period, attacking the goal was the game
plan for both squads.
Georgia Tech was up seven when senior center Alvin Jones fouled
out with 3:48 left in the game.
UCLA pressed to force a turnover and get an easy score.
Disrupt-ing the Yellow Jackets with this scheme was the
Bruins’ Ryan Bailey, who played most of the second half for
Barnes. Bailey got a steal at halfcourt and found Watson for a fast
break lay-in to get the Bruins within two at 66-64.
“I don’t think we played very smart in the first
half,” said Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt. “I
wasn’t pleased with the attitude that (Jones) brought to the
floor in the first half. But his defensive presence turned the game
around in the second half.”
Yellow Jacket free throws got the lead back up to five before a
Kapono three-pointer with 31.9 seconds to go cut the deficit to two
again. UCLA immediately called timeout to set up the full-court
press. Kapono was able to steal the ball on the ensuing inbound and
found Watson cutting the basket.
Falling away, however, the senior captain was unable to convert
the basket and Gadzuric’s attempt at a putback rolled off the
rim. Lewis’s rebound and three converted free throws to
follow would seal the Bruins’ doom.
“We didn’t play well at either end of the floor and
it cost us,” Lavin explained afterwards. “We
didn’t get good movement and it shows with 11 assists for the
game. Our shot selection and discipline were also not very good. We
didn’t get into an offensive rhythm or flow. This is the
third game in a row we haven’t played well.”
The Bruins let a game slip through their fingers and no one took
the disappointment of Saturday tougher than UCLA’s
leader.
“We got our chances to win,” a Watson said in the
postgame press conference. “I just missed a layup and I lost
the game. I didn’t capitalize on that chance. I put the last
30 seconds and the game on me.”