Thursday, April 25

Men’s basketball narrowly leads Arizona State 44-43 at halftime


Sophomore guard Kris Wilkes leads UCLA men’s basketball in scoring with eight points on 3-of-5 shooting at the half against Arizona State. The Bruins lead the Sun Devils 44-43. (Axel Lopez/Assistant Photo editor)


The first UCLA men’s basketball turnover came six minutes, 50 seconds into the game.

It was a stark contrast from three of the past four games, in which the Bruins committed more than 20 turnovers.

But over the next 10 minutes, UCLA gave the ball away six times.

That, combined with nine offensive rebounds by Arizona State, helped the visiting Sun Devils erase an 11-0 deficit to start the game. The Bruins lead 44-43 at halftime.

UCLA finished the first half with eight turnovers, leading to 12 fastbreak points for Arizona State.

Interim coach Murry Bartow inserted redshirt freshman forward Jalen Hill into the starting lineup over sophomore forward Chris Smith, and Hill’s energy carried over to an alley-oop dunk 90 seconds into the game.

All nine Bruins who entered the game scored, with none reaching double digits.

Freshman guard David Singleton and sophomore guard Kris Wilkes led the team with eight points apiece.

On the other end, UCLA’s’ full-court pressure defense hounded Arizona State into missing 12 of its first 15 shots.

But with the help of turnovers, the Sun Devils crept back into the game.

Guard Remy Martin fed eight assists to his teammates and his only two points came on a poster dunk over redshirt junior guard Prince Ali.

Forward Kimani Lawrence leads Arizona State with nine points.

Alumnus

Wang joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2015 and contributed until he graduated in 2019. He was an assistant Sports editor for the 2016-2017 academic year and spent time on the football, men's basketball, women's soccer, men's tennis and women's tennis beats.


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