• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

Junior center Michael Fey had the ball in his hands early and often Thursday as the Bruins made a

BERKELEY — UCLA coach Ben Howland made it clear to his team that he wanted a change in his team’s perimeter-oriented offense. He emphasized all week the necessity of making sure the ball found its way to post, and that meant in junior Michael Fey’s hands. Right from the start, it was clear the Bruins were making a concerted effort to balance out their attack, as Fey took 10 field goal attempts in the first half. By comparison, he had 17 attempts in his previous five games combined. “That was our game plan coming in,” freshman Arron Afflalo said. “There’s no reason why he shouldn’t get touches. He’s not a selfish guy; he’ll throw the ball back out. I’m glad we did that, and we should’ve done it more in the second half.” UCLA got mixed results from feeding their 7-foot center as Fey, one of the Pac-10 leaders in field goal percentage, shot only 3-of-10 in the first half, finishing the night with eight points on 4-for-11 shooting. “I just need to slow down and take my time,” Fey said. “I missed some shots that I normally make. I just need to keep posting strong and doing the things I was doing tonight, I should be fine.” Though he took only one shot in the second half, it was a critical one. With California trying to mount a comeback and trailing by 11, Fey snatched an offensive rebound and softly laid in the put-back, giving UCLA some much-needed breathing room. “He was hurrying a few of them, but he probably wasn’t used to taking so many shots,” Howland said. “His one shot attempt in the second half was huge. Getting the offense to play a little more inside-out was critical.”

HITTING THE GLASS: Although UCLA won the battle on the boards 42-37, California dominated the Bruins on the offensive glass. The Golden Bears pulled down 17 offensive rebounds, which allowed them to take 14 more total shots than UCLA. “They were taking long shots and getting long rebounds,” Fey said. “But they were definitely more aggressive in going to the ball. We need to work more on boxing out and keeping our man from going up over us.” Although all those extra shots didn’t hurt UCLA in the end, Cal was clearly the more aggressive team in the second half. “We got a little too relaxed out there when we were up 20,” senior Dijon Thompson said.

DRIBBLERS: Freshman Lorenzo Mata did not play due to a bruised sternum suffered in practice Tuesday. He is expected to play Sunday against Stanford ... Freshman Jordan Farmar picked up a technical foul for pushing California’s Martin Smith ... Senior Josiah Johnson and walk-on Quinn Hawking both saw action in the waning moments of UCLA’s blowout victory ... Thursday’s game was the Bruins’ 50th with Howland as coach.