Bruins Rally Falls Short

As good as the #18 Bruins (15-4) looked in their win agains cross-town rival USC, thats how bad they looked in the first half against #12 West Virginia (14-3). Down by as many as 20 points in the second half, the Bruins sucked up, bucked up, and finally D'd up before falling short 60-56. A furious second half rally that only fell short when in the last possession Mountaineer guard Mike Gansey stripped Jordan Farmar clean to kill the Bruin rally and seal the victory.

Apart from the game saving steal, Gansey led all scorers with 24 points including going 3-3 from behind the arc. Farmar led UCLA with 22 points. The story was shooting, or the lack of it from UCLA. Leading scorer Arron Afflalo who averages over 18 points per game, was totally held in check by West Virginia's defense only scoring 4 points. As a team, UCLA barely shot 26% from the feild in the first half. UCLA's other sharpshooter Michael Roll who scored 17 against Washington went 0-7 from the feild.

Although the comeback showed a lot of heart by the Bruins, the loss shows that the injuries are starting to catch up with them as well. It takes a lot to dig yourself from a 20 point deficit, a job only made harder when your leading scorer is having probably the worst night of his career. The lack of inside scoring punch was painfully evident throughout the game, with most of the Bruins attempts coming off of jumpers especially late. A chance for UCLA as well as the Pac-10 to shine against the Big East's top team fell by the wayside.

"We've been on the verge of cracking the top 10 three times," Afflalo said, "And we come up one, two points short all the time.... We lost on our home floor and it was a big chance we had to do something good for the name on the front of this uniform and that hurts."

Hopefully the wounds heal in time for the big road trip next week as our Boys of Westwood travel up to play the Oregon schools Thursday (at the Ducks) and Saturday (at the Beavers).

Photo by AP/ Matt Sayles