Huskies fall to UCLA 85 -76
by John Berkowitz on Feb 19, 2009 10:22 PM PST
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PrintWashington fell to UCLA tonight creating a four way tie for first place in the Pac 10 with two weekends remaining for conference play. Washington needs to pick up a win at USC to stay on top of the conference. Even with the loss the Huskies are the favorites with three of our games left on their home court.
It is tough to play at Pauley Pavilion and come out with a win and the Bruins played with a greater purpose tonight with conference championship elimination on the line. Give credit to the Bruins because they made the least mistakes tonight and had the officials on their sides most of the night.
Josh Shipp scored 20 points and No. 20 UCLA held off 22nd-ranked Washington 85-76 Thursday night to move into a second-place tie in the Pac-10, a half-game behind the first-place Huskies.
Darren Collison added 17 points,Nikola Dragovic 15, and Alfred Aboya had 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Bruins, who kept alive their bid for a fourth consecutive league title.
Washington's Justin Dentmon scored 22 points and Jon Brockman had 16 points and 14 rebounds for his 55th career double-double, most among college basketball's active players. Isaiah Thomas and Quincey Pondexter added 12 points each.
The Bruins (20-6, 9-4 Pac-10) were coming off back-to-back road losses last week in Arizona, and wanted to avoid their first three-game losing streak since 2005, when they were beaten by Arizona, Stanford and California in coach Ben Howland's second season.
They did that, and in the process notched their 45th 20-win season in school history.
The Huskies (19-7, 10-4) trailed virtually the entire game at Pauley Pavilion, where they fell to 1-22 since the 1986-87 season. Their three-game winning streak ended, too.
The Huskies, who got to the line 43 times in their 86-75 victory over UCLA on Jan. 24, hit four of 10 free throws this time, while UCLA was 15-of-18.
Washington got within two points with 3:45 remaining on a basket by Pondexter. But the Bruins outscored the Huskies 12-7, including six in a row, to end the game.
Brockman scored Washington's first four points of the second half, including its first free throws of the game, before Shipp hit a 3-pointer for UCLA's first double-digit lead, 41-31.
From there, the Huskies kept chipping away at their deficit and forced a tie at 55 on consecutive baskets by Pondexter with 11:26 remaining. They were helped by mistakes from UCLA freshman Jerime Anderson. Venoy Overtron stole the ball from Anderson at midcourt and scored, then Anderson missed an easy layup at UCLA's end before Pondexter's tying basket.
Collison restored order for the Bruins, launching a 10-3 run in which he scored six points, capped by dribbling through two defenders in the lane to score for a 65-58 lead with 8:28 remaining.
The Bruins repeatedly drove the basket instead of settling for perimeter shots like they did on the Arizona trip. Collison stepped out to connect on a 3-pointer and Michael Roll hit one of two free throws that pushed UCLA's lead to nine points, its largest since early in the second half.
The Bruins twice led by nine in the first half. The Huskies closed within two before UCLA outscored them 9-4 to lead 34-27 going into the break. Shipp scored seven of those points, and Aboya's fastbreak dunk drew oohs from the crowd.
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Ouch!
That was disappointing but not totally unexpected. Let’s focus on getting the split vs usc.
Washington Husky Football-1991 National Champions
Overton
I only saw the first half before I fell asleep but this kid is like a roller coaster. He would handle the ball down the court and just make some stupid passes that look like they were going to no one but then the next time down make a great dribble move to the basket. He is quick, no denying that, but he is not a smart passer. I wanted to rip my hair out on some of them. The first half was sloppy and if it werent for Brockmans 3 offensive reb/put back’s on top of some very good drives by IT we would have been down a lot more than we were.
Our 3 point shooting is horrible!
Disclaimer
In regards to the 3 point shooting…I only saw the first half and I dont think we made one.
We actually hit 4/8
But really, it was all Dentmon. He’s the only guy on the team who’s a good shooter.
Actually, I thought we penetrated well.
We ended up shooting over 50% in the second half, I think. Length on the wings did us in again … this time on the defensive end. There really is not much that IT/Dentmon/Quincy can do when long guys like Dragovich (6’9") and Shipp (6’5") are stroking threes at the clip that they were going. Either we choose to put Gant and Holiday in the game to bother the shooters (and sacrifice our own offensive flow) or we try to outscore them.
I thought our guards did a nice job bothering Collison and our pressure D created lots of scoring opportunities – Overton in particular made some really nice one one one defensive moves that created easy buckets for him and for Dentmon. I was disappointed that AA was so effective against Brockman – I didn’t really see that one coming.
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
Still, not as bad as I thought it might get.
The last few years at Pauley, we have been run off the floor. This team shot 50% in FGA. The turnovers were the tie breaker. A few other little things, not getting the ball to Brock much in 2nd half, although that might be explained by his being tired by the flu bug witness the 2 missed FTs with under a minute left., and not getting the ball enough to the hot hand Justin Dentmon who was popping the 3s. For the first time in many years, I feel we can actually beat UCLA on a neutral court (ie the talent level is there). We might find out in PAC 10 tourney.
That said, the USC game scares me. USC and Cal we just don’t seem to match up well. Also hope UCLA does a face plant against the cougs now that they won the big game. The Obama Beavers could also help by bumping off Cal. ASU/AZ , one of them commits fratricide this weekend. I hope the Ducks continue their streak against the Furd.
Free throw shooting
IT ihasreally been struggling at the line. Could have been a different game had he/we shot a bit beter from the line.
Yeah - I thought it strange that our first free throw came with ...
… only 4 mins to go in the first half despite the fact that most of our shot attempts were 10 ft in and closer.
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
Not a bad loss at all. On a neutral court we would have had anoher 20 FT opportunities.
This loss doesn’t make us any worse as a team. I think we saw good play from each of our 5 guys who get the most minutes. Overton has really picked it up from the beginning of the season and is definitely a good role player. IT, Brockman, Pondexter, and Dentmon all had good nights as well. Everyone else was pretty much invisible out there, but that’s kind of what we’ve come to expect since MBA either has his game or not.
Pretty tough game against USC. We’ll probably be 1-3 point underdogs but it’s definitely winnable. It’s the kind of game we should win to prove that we can play on the road against top-40 teams (Only Az St. so far, we dropped road games to Cal, Az, and UCLA). If we can pull off this win, it helps make a case that we have a good chance at taking down any non-elite team (Memphis, UNC, Pitt, UConn) on a neutral court.
Back to the Free Throw Bug
We lost this game because of the “clanked” free throws. I thought the officiating was a little one-sided, maybe it was a little payback for the earlier contest up in Seattle. Ucla got a lot of the calls and I thought the Bruins were allowed to be a little more physical then us. No gripes here though. If we’d sunk a few more free throws we very well could’ve won this game.
Ucla got too many good looks at the basket, our defense was sporadic and didn’t play as good as I’d hoped. Ucla came into the game not wanting to allow us to get the ball up court as fast as we like and that slowed down our tempo quite a bit.
This is a drag! USC is 14-1 at home. I’m not predicting anything, but I think UDub is going to find getting a win at USC to be tough. This could be our first sweep of the season and if so, then MAN! That would be bad timing.
All I saw was purple
I don't think we lost this game because of free throws ...
…. this was one of those games where we played well, but the other team played better. Dragovich and Shipp were unconscious with those threes. The only criticism that I think should be fixable is how we defend the post. I can’t believe how effective Aboya was 1:1 with Brockman on him.
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
Last night really proved that UW is the better team.
UCLA had every possible advantage. And they came up with an entirely unconvincing win.
Every 50/50 play went UCLA’s way last night. Every long rebound that was tipped 4 times ended up in their hands.
Thomas played poorly. It wasn’t just that he was off (which he was), or that UCLA defended him well (which they did). Thomas made mistakes that he hasn’t made this season. This was the first game that Romar has taken the ball out of his hands at the end of a close game. That says something.
The Dawgs should’ve pounded the interior of the Bruin defense more than they did. Both with Pondexter and Brockman. UCLA is weak inside. The Dawgs missed easy shots in close. That isn’t going to happen on a consistent basis (other than with Bryan-Ammaning, who is really struggling right now. He needs to bust out).
The Dawgs really are the better team. Even though last night wasn’t their best effort of the season, it was good enough to beat UCLA any place other than Pauley.
A few comments
To the people complaning about the foul situation:
UCLA had a +11 point foul differential and the win was by 9 points. Without a last second run-up-the-court uncontested 3 by Dentmon the win would have been by 12 points (in other words, larger than the foul differential).
Last time we played, UW had a +26!!! point foul differential and the UW win was by 11 points.
Obviously Pac-10 refs just suck in general, and their shittiness throws games one way or the other, but I really think you’re stretching it if you feel that they changed the @UCLA game more than the @UW game and that UW should be 2-0 against UCLA.
—-
To the people who felt UW would have “blown us out” if it weren’t for Josh Shipp’s 6/9 shooting from the 3 point line:
The rest of our team shot 3/15. The whole team shot at 37.5, which is just below our season average of 39.8. You can’t just point out Shipp’s hot streak and forget about everyone else’s cold streak.
If you’re going to cite foul differential, you have to take into account the style of basketball the teams play. UW relies on the free throw line to get easy points, and are one of the best teams in the nation at getting to the line. UCLA did not simply have a “+11 point foul differential”, it was much larger than that:
UCLA averaged 17.1 free throw attempts per game coming into last night’s game. They took 18. About what you’d expect, but +1.
UW averaged 27.5 free throw attempts per come coming into last nights game. They took 10, not at all what you’d expect unless they played a style of play different to that which they had been playing all year (they didn’t). -17.5.
An 18.5 free throw swing.
Supposing the Huskies take 15 more free throws (still fewer than their average) and make 69% of them (the team’s FT% for the year), that’s 10.4 more points they score. That’s enough for the game to have been much closer.
Everyone I’ve talked to about this game (WSU fans, Oregon fans, Oregon State fans, a couple Big East fans with no rooting interest, an ACC guy also without a rooting interest) have all said, that the officiating was downright dogshit and clearly favored UCLA.
I didn't say that the officiating was good last night!
I said that the officiating last night in favor of UCLA wasn’t more of an impact than the officiating @UW in favor of UW. That is, both games had officating impact.
Your point about playing style is a good one. Repeating your analysis, @UW, the Huskies attempted 43 FTs. 43 – 27.5 = 15.5, and 17.1 – 15 = 1.9, so there was a 17.4 FT swing relative to season averages (compared to 18.4 @UCLA). Since the winning margin was almost exactly the same (UCLA+12, as explained earlier, and UW+11), your analysis demonstrates that the officiating had a similar impact.
Personally I feel that officiating had a bigger impact @UW because half our team was in foul trouble, and giving the opposing team 43 FT attempts immensely disrupts your team’s offense and defense. But that is not my major point.
The officiating was bad both games
And just about every Pac-10 game for that matter, but I don’t think you can say one game was any worse. They were two different monsters. In Seattle the refs wouldn’t let the players breathe on each other, and in LA the whistles weren’t blown short of someone being punched. Both ways are infuriating to watch, especially when your team is losing.
If we hit our free throws in that game then it would’ve been closer at the end. It could’ve put tremendous pressure on Ucla to finish the game. The officiating was not great. It seemed we couldn’t get a call unless it was obvious. The Bruins were able to knock us around in the half court w/out reprocussion. That stuff has been called fouls for us all season long. But I am not going to blame the officiating. We hit a few more free throws and it would’ve put more pressure on Ucla to finish- we didn’t cash in and it cost us a chance to win at the end.
I don’t know how we are going rebound from this loss. Thursday Nights have not been our friend this year and some how we come in on Saturdays and split. But USC is 14-1 at home. I’m not sure if our team is good enough to win at USC. Thursday night at Ucla needed to be a victory. Why? Because we could’ve gotten the Bruins out of the running for the league championship. Thus it would’ve been us vs. Arizona State and the winner in Seattle would’ve taken all the marbles.
USC is a must win- the biggest must win of the season. Beat USC and the rest of the schedule is at home. Gotta beat the Trojans.
All I saw was purple
Basically I think we both agree
that Pac-10 refs are horrible. I guess we don’t need to debate whether they’re committing first degree or second degree murder on the court.
Traveling?
Has anyone else noticed how many times Pac 10 officials called traveling? Watch a Big East or an ACC matchup and you might see traveling called maybe once in the entire game. But watch a Pac 10 matchup and traveling is called 3 times a half. Good Grief! Are our kids really that lousy with their footwork and agility?
Traveling is about the worst call to get in college basketball. Let’s face it, if you get called for traveling you’re not that great with your feet. I think the Big East and ACC are not calling traveling nearly as much as the Pac 10 so the game looks cleaner. If the game looks cleaner then it would appear that those leagues are more fundamentally sound. I’m sick of watching our kids get called for traveling and the Big East and ACC hardly ever call it.
Note to Pac 10 officials: For heaven sakes, try to stay with the trends of the rest of the country. Your calls in the game are making our league look inferior. Not just in basketball either. Football is even worse! Why does it take 5 minutes to review a call? And then what is totally bizzare about officiating in football is that you can never get instant replay correct. I’ve seen it a dozen times when the Pac 10 officials reverse a call based upon assumptions, guesses, and little hairs sticking up on your back. Get it Right dammit! If their is no “video evidence” then the call stands as called on the field. Time after time I see no video evidence, but the call is reversed. Video evidence means that their is nothing obstructing the play. If you can’t see the knee down because a defender’s body is in the way then the call should stand. You are making a horses ass out of yourselves because you are assuming his knee is down when the defender is blocking your video feed. GET IT RIGHT!
All I saw was purple
Pauley Pavillion is Quiet- WOW!
Never have I seen a Pac 10 basketball arena so terribly quiet. Look anywhere else and it’s a frenzied out of control situation. It was so quiet I could hear Howland from his bench.
And who leaves the game prior to it being over? I saw thousands of Ucla fans exiting from the building w/ over a minute left in the game. For a major heavy weight in college basketball their fans sure take a lot of winning for granted.
And for those Ucla fans that say we are accustom to winning, I’ve got one thing to say to you. It’s been 13 years since your last championship. The fanbase has gotten too complacent. I guess final four appearances are just as good as championships in Westwood nowadays. Ben Howland is a dam good coach but the fanbase needs to show a little more respect for the program. Leaving early? WOW!
All I saw was purple
crazi
In response to UCLA fans leaving early, I think we probably top them at HecEd. I have seen fans leave with 5 mins to go in game and score close. It bothered me so much last two years as we had aisle seats that in the last 5 mins I should have left too as we couldn’t watch the game allowing these idiots to leave. Whatever happened to leaving and getting to your seat during a break and just sit down in the aisle until then. We solved that problem this year as our seats are more in the midddle of row.
This isn’t a good topic in which to be berating other teams fans, we are guilty too and maybe even more so.
It's all about Perception
I was more concerned with how quiet Pauley was. For such a high profile program w/ the richest college basketball tradtions, I would think the fans would be a little more pumped up for a game of this magnitude.
You see the problem with Ucla is that they are competing on a higher level. They are essentially in a league filled with UCon, Carolina, Duke, and the Kentuckys of the world. These programs are the elitest of the elite. And to showcase a pivital league game like this on television hurts their cause. Could you imagine the outcry if Carolina or Duke fans were exiting before the game was over? Could you imagine the outcry for the student section not being boisterous enough? The elite league of UCon, Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, and Ucla are trying to stay ontop of the game. And the presentation on television draws us (the fans) in.
Notice at Duke that the student section is on the opposite side of the floor in relation to the tv cameras? The Students aren’t leaving. The older crowd of season ticket holders are behind coach K and his bench. So with that said we don’t see the season ticket holders leaving- oh I’m sure they leave early, we just don’t see them filing out because the camera doesn’t pick them up like at Pauley. All I’m saying about the fans filing out at Pauley looked bad on television. You wouldn’t see that at UCon, Carolina, Duke, or Kentucky. I think Ucla should take a look at how their game is being viewed on national television. It’s all about perception and to stay in the league of the elite, you have to worry about perception.
All I saw was purple
okay, I get your thinking.
My comment was the Husky fans leave alarmingly early and many also arrive after tipoff. I see your point. Hope they never show the upper deck at Hec Ed 5 minutes before a game ends. I am quite happy where I am now Sec1 row 18 in HecEd as few people walk by me while the game is in progress now. couldn’t say that the 2 previous years with the aisle seats.
BTW, Hec Ed at times seems quiet, if we didn’t have the Dawgpack the place could easily pass for a library at times. Sometimes I think my wife and I are the only grey hairs cheering. It usually takes a run or great block/dunk to get the folks going.
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