DANIEL WONG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Matt
Barnes attempts a reverse layup on two UC Riverside
defenders in UCLA’s victory Wednesday. UCLA 65 UC
Riverside 50
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It wasn’t a win from which conclusions could be drawn, for
even in victory, the UCLA men’s basketball team looked
terrible.
The home crowd of 6,704 at Pauley Pavilion was spared some of
the horror midway through the second half, when the Bruins went on
a 16-0 run to put away UC Riverside, with which it was tied at
halftime at 28.
No. 20 UCLA (3-2) appeared to be anything but the 20th best team
in the country in dismantling the undersized and underskilled
Highlanders (0-5), who are in their first official season as a
Division I squad, 65-50.
“We played well in stretches,” said Bruin small
forward Jason Kapono, who scored a game-high 18 points. “I
can’t say we’re flying high right now.”
“It wasn’t pretty in any aspect,” added head
coach Steve Lavin.
So devoid of beauty was UCLA’s outing, that Lavin named
senior guard Rico Hines, who was yet again shut out and remains
scoreless this season, as his team’s brightest player for the
game.
“He was on the floor seven, eight, nine times,”
Lavin said of Hines. “He made hustle plays and some
deflections. I’m not concerned if he doesn’t score for
us all year. He brings leadership and passion, which we need on
defense.”
“Winning basketball games is about doing little things and
he’s doing the little things.”
The scrappy guy, the star.
And, no, Lavin didn’t seem insincere. This wasn’t
some gesture prompted by the coach’s pity for Hines, who
missed all five of his field goal attempts, a couple of which were
right in front of the basket.
That’s the kind of game it was ““ both teams played
ugly and scrappy, from start to finish.
Only in the second half, shallow-benched Riverside lost its wind
and got blown away. In the end, the Bruins were able to force two
more turnovers than the Highlanders were able to (20 to 18) and
out-rebounded them by a wide margin (48 to 30). Athleticism and
depth, products of UCLA’s vastly superior natural talent, and
not execution of their pregame plans, determined the outcome of the
contest.
“We got tired, no doubt, especially our big men,”
Riverside head coach John Masi said. “They wore us down on
the front line.”
The Bruins, who outscored the Highlanders 37-22 in the second
half, knew their win was no reason to celebrate.
“We could’ve played better,” said senior
forward Matt Barnes, who had nine points and six rebounds.
“We have to play better if we’re going to beat Alabama
(this Saturday at the Wooden Classic).”
Some of UCLA’s players admitted letting down a bit since
they were playing Riverside.
“We’re used to playing Stanford at Maples,”
Kapono said. “We have to play better in these games.
It’s been proven that if we look past them, we could lose to
these teams.”
“It’s sad to say because we’re not supposed to
(take lower-profiled teams lightly),” added Barnes. “We
fell back into that mode.”
In addition, Barnes said that since their team has always
overcome slow starts in the past, they have trouble getting up for
the season’s early games.
Following the game, Lavin personally took the blame for his
team’s performance thus far in the infant 2001-2
campaign.
“If the kids fail, it’s the coach’s
fault,” Lavin said. “I haven’t done a good job in
November. I’m the worst November coach in college basketball
history.”
“But I still enjoy this team, I’m still optimistic.
We may get worse before we get better, but we will get
better.”
Riverside was led by forward Lloyd Cook, who scored 14 points
and grabbed 6 rebounds, both team highs.
Guard Jason Perkins added 11 points for the Highlanders.
Center Dan Gadzuric and shooting guard Billy Knight each had 11
points for UCLA. Gadzuric also had a game-high 10 rebounds.