Oregon 68 UCLA 66

Russell Westbrook, Aaron Brooks, and Josh Shipp fight for possession.



Maybe an early tip-off time (11 a.m. PST) is what the Ducks need. After an awful shooting performance against USC in the first half in Thursday night's loss to the Trojans, the Ducks hit their first seven shots of the game, and finished the first half shooting 70%, en route to a 40-34 lead against the top ranked UCLA Bruins.

Aaron Brooks hit the winning jumper with 13 seconds to play, breaking a 66 all deadlock, and Maarty Leunen provided some rock solid defending on the final Bruin shot attempt from outside to seal the win.


I'm not totally surprised by this result, coming as it did after the Trojan loss. The bad taste of last season's mediocre performance is still around, albeit as a small reminder of what can happen if one doesn't play as a team, and rebound from the usual array of injuries and unluckiness that most basketball teams find themselves in during a game. Malik Hairston is still out of the lineup with a heel injury, and the absence of a true big man lead to some easy Bruin baskets, especially early on when the Ducks were getting used to the Bruins quickness (boy, do they get back and play defense in a hurry, limiting the number of Duck fast break options). That's not to say that the Ducks are a slow team either, both Brooks and Tajuan Porter were still relentless in pushing the ball up the court, and once the defense began to focus more , both Leunen and Bryce Taylor came up big with their hands knocking away passes to the inside. One of the more surprising stats of the game was that Bruin star Aaron Afflalo was held scoreless in the first half, on five shot attempts, though he did wind up with 14 for the game.


RECAP