Carl Berman 
24 Jan 2015 
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Eugene, OR – An interesting UCLA squad came to Eugene today after losing to an over-achieving Oregon State Beaver team Thursday night. UCLA had had an up-and-down season and is one of the major disappointments in the nation. The Bruins came off a five-game losing streak to win three Pac-12 games in a row (Stanford, Cal, and USC) before losing to the Beavers.
Oregon (14-6, 4-3) had no problem with UCLA (11-9, 3-4), scoring early and often, in running away to a 82-64 win. Joseph Young led Oregon with 16 points while Dwayne Benjamin added 15 points on a perfect 6-of-6 from the field including three three-pointers. Norman Powell came on in the second half to lead the Bruins with 23 points. Oregon shot 62.3 percent for the game including 9-of-13 (69.2 percent) from deep.
UCLA has a likely lottery pick in the 2015 NBA Draft in 6’9 frosh Kevon Looney and another possible pick in the 6’4 Powell. They play a limited rotation and were missing 6’9 Tony Parker on the Oregon trip. That left their rotation more short-handed than usual with 7’0 frosh Thomas Welch and 6’10 Gyorgy Goloman (from Hungary) handling the post minutes. With Parker out, and the Bruins getting poor production from shooting guard Isaac Hamilton, they’ve been reduced to a three-man scoring combination of Looney, Powell and Bryce Alford with virtually no production from their bench. They’ll need a healthy Parker to compete the rest of the season, but a team with no bench and poor defense makes it doubtful for the Bruins to contend for an NCAA tournament spot.
Oregon came out on fire, making their first six three-pointers and shooting 75 percent from the field in taking a 46-31 halftime lead. The Bruins looked disjointed in offense with Looney (nine points) and Alford (11 points on three from deep) their only bright spots. Powell was ineffective (2-of-7 FG) and their two posts only contributed two points and one rebound in 21 minutes. The Ducks, on the other hand, hardly missed a shot. Benjamin, Ahmaad Rorie and Young all shot 3-of-3. Benjamin and Jalil Abdul-Bassit each made both of their three-point attempts. UCLA clearly has issues defending.
UCLA played the Ducks evenly through the first part of the second half before Looney drew his fourth foul with 15:06 remaining. A Casey Benson dish to Dillon Brooks took the lead back to 15 points (62-47) with 13:49 left. A nice baseline drive by Young extended the lead to 19 (68-49) and pretty much put the game away as Looney then returned with his four fouls. He only lasted until the eight minute mark when he fouled out with 15 points and eight rebounds. The Ducks then coasted to the 18-point win. 6’10 Roman Sorkin (Israel) made his first appearance for Oregon in the final minute and hit a nice 18-footer from the top of the key.
Oregon next heads to Arizona for a Wednesday night game against the Wildcats. UCLA plays No. 12 Utah at home, a team that beat them 71-39 earlier this month in Salt Lake City.
Carl Berman is Managing Partner of NetScouts Basketball. You can subscribe to our RSS feed from the upper right corner of our home page, follow us on Facebook, or on twitter.
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