Vets Keep It Close But Bruins Still Fall in Texas

By Bruin Basketball Report

Box Score

UCLA kept the game close but couldn't pull it out in Austin as the Texas Longhorns beat the Bruins for the second consecutive year, 68-64, in a Pac-10/Big 12 Hardwood Classic match-up.

In the team's first road game of the year, the Bruin upperclassmen stepped it up and almost helped the team pull out a win.

On the other hand, perhaps it can be viewed that the Bruin freshmen used this game as a building block for the rest of the season.

Seniors Darren Collison scored a team-high 22 points and Josh Shipp chipped in 15 points to lead the Bruins in scoring. Alfred Aboya also added 7 points plus grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds while junior James Keefe played a solid game recording 8 points on 3 of 4 shooting including 2 of 2 on three pointers.

In contrast the five Bruin freshmen combined for a total of just 3 points 6 rebounds in a total of 48 minutes of play.

UCLA hung tough the entire game as the lead see-sawed throughout the contest. But after six consecutive points by Texas's A.J Abrams, the Longhorns went into halftime with a 38-29 lead.

But the Bruins came storming out in the second half with consecutive jumpers by Keefe, Shipp, and Collison to cut the lead to just five. After another Collison jumper with 13 minutes remaining the Bruins finally took the lead 47-46.

Towards the final minutes of the game the Bruin offense seemed to stagnate with way too much one-on-one play specifically too much dribbling by Darren Collison. In the final critical five minutes of the game, the Bruins were outscored 8-2.

Jrue Holiday struggled the entire game offensively and it appeared a more prudent move would have been to replace him with Michael Roll down the stretch especially when the Bruins needed a critical three to tie the game. Holiday finished shooting 1 of 6 from the field and 0 of 3 on three-pointers.

In his defense, Holiday was given the tough assignment of guarding A.J Abrams who ended up torching him for 31 points. A good tough lesson for Holiday.

With the loss the Bruins now fall to 4-2 on the season. They will host Cal State Northridge on Sunday night at Pauley Pavilion.

(photo credit: AP)