Bears end L.A. trip out of gas on offense
LOS ANGELES — UCLA has not been known for its defensive prowess this season, not by a long stretch. But the Bruins were kicking themselves for letting Cal get to 40 points on Sunday at Pauley Pavilion.
The Bears’ 5040 loss was one of the lowestscoring outings by a UCLA opponent in history. Oregon State twice had the fewest points at Pauley Pavilion, scoring 35 in 1966 and 2007. The Bears weren’t quite that inefficient but they were close.
Cal shot 30.4% from the field and 17% from 3point range, missing 14 of 17 attempts.
“Their defense was very good,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said. “When we’re not making the 3, we’ve got to find other ways to score. We were not scoring. I have to give them credit. We couldn’t score in the paint.”
“When you can hold a team to 40 points, it’s a good thing. We should’ve held them to a lot less than 40,” said Chris Smith, who led UCLA with 17 points. “We gave them a lot of layups, offensive rebounds and secondchance points. It was a decent defensive performance, but we could’ve done better.”
Matt Bradley led the Bears with 17 points, and Cal (810, 23 Pac12) remains winless on the road this season.
The last time UCLA (99, 23) held a team to 39 or fewer was in a 6239 victory over Pepperdine at the L.A. Sports Arena on Nov. 28, 2011. Had it not been for a 3pointer by Dimitrios Klomaras with 22 seconds left, the Bruins would’ve bettered that defensive outing as well.
It was a road trip the Bears would like to forget. It got started in a difficult way, losing 8856 at USC on Thursday. The Bears trailed 2221 at halftime against the Bruins but couldn’t stay close in the second half.
Cal hosts Stanford on Sunday to begin a threegame