Sat down to watch wondering if YuCeeHellAye might have found their game during the second half vs OAC, coming away with a road win after trailing at the half. Turns out that they did about what I hoped they would. They were a taller beefier team in the paint and they owned the boards except the one that counted, the scoreboard. In order to prevent them from taking that too, the Ducks found themselves in foul trouble while the Bruins did not. Bono should have had the game in his hands but UCLA couldn't get it there often enough. He has some success and his 5 blocked shots helped keep the game close.
UCLA did play some pretty decent defense, holding the final score down. Supposedly, the biggest thing holding the THEM down is confidence, which has not improved any after the game I watched. I haven't seen Bono play very much this year but I understand he has had some foul trouble so far and was told he needed to work on that facet of his game. He managed to cut his total to one vs the Beavers and UCLA won, though not by as much as I expected. Vs Oregon he had, I think, only two in the loss. Maybe he needs to find a middle ground of aggressiveness
The game was again, in the end, about Oregon's aggressive hustling defense. Three point shooting was decent for Oregon again, especially in the second half, The UCLA sharp shooters were, from beyond the arc ... well .. pretty much UCless. They didn't get many good looks as the Ducks played pretty tight defense as they have in most of their games. I haven't looked at the stats but I cant imagine the percentages being close. Every time I though the U of O was starting to slide behind by too much to recover from, they put a burst on and jumped back into the lead. Shelstad led the way with another 20 point game and will be in then running for PAC12 player of the week. He exploded in the second half after a so-so first stanza. These guys are playing with a lot of maturity and show great chemistry and poise.
For part of a day, Oregon is in first place all by its lonesome until the desert schools and the mountain ones probably join them on Sunday. If Oregon does reasonably well in Washington next week, they could be in decent shape for the possible return of Dante the next one.
UCLA did play some pretty decent defense, holding the final score down. Supposedly, the biggest thing holding the THEM down is confidence, which has not improved any after the game I watched. I haven't seen Bono play very much this year but I understand he has had some foul trouble so far and was told he needed to work on that facet of his game. He managed to cut his total to one vs the Beavers and UCLA won, though not by as much as I expected. Vs Oregon he had, I think, only two in the loss. Maybe he needs to find a middle ground of aggressiveness
The game was again, in the end, about Oregon's aggressive hustling defense. Three point shooting was decent for Oregon again, especially in the second half, The UCLA sharp shooters were, from beyond the arc ... well .. pretty much UCless. They didn't get many good looks as the Ducks played pretty tight defense as they have in most of their games. I haven't looked at the stats but I cant imagine the percentages being close. Every time I though the U of O was starting to slide behind by too much to recover from, they put a burst on and jumped back into the lead. Shelstad led the way with another 20 point game and will be in then running for PAC12 player of the week. He exploded in the second half after a so-so first stanza. These guys are playing with a lot of maturity and show great chemistry and poise.
For part of a day, Oregon is in first place all by its lonesome until the desert schools and the mountain ones probably join them on Sunday. If Oregon does reasonably well in Washington next week, they could be in decent shape for the possible return of Dante the next one.
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