UCLA players, from left, Kory Alford, Nick Kazemi, and David Brown, celebrate their 76-59 win over Tulsa. Hayne Palmour IV - UT San DiegoAt UCLA, five years without a Sweet Sixteen berth qualifies as severe underachievement.
The Bruins on Friday moved within one victory of ending the drought, defeating Tulsa 76-59 in their NCAA Tournament opener.
Only 12th-seeded Stephen F. Austin, an upset winner over VCU, stands between No. 4 UCLA (27-8) and a South Region appearance next week in Memphis.
'We buckled down and took care of business,' sophomore guard Kyle Anderson said.
A broken foot suffered in the Pac-12 tournament last year prevented Jordan Adams from playing in UCLA's tournament-opening, 20-point loss to Minnesota.
The sophomore guard led UCLA on Friday in points (21) and rebounds (6). Three other Bruins scored in double digits before a pro-UCLA crowd of 11,488 at Viejas Arena.
When Tulsa pulled to 59-54 with 4:41 to play, the Bruins closed with a 17-4 run that featured Norman Powell dunking with one hand and making a three-point play after stealing a long inbound pass.
Powell scored 15 points. The junior guard was playing in San Diego for the first time since his career at Lincoln High.
'They were hanging around,' Powell said of the Golden Hurricane, 'and the coaches told me to turn up the defense and I was able to get steals and get to the bucket.'
The Bruins shot 54.8 percent in the second half.
'They controlled the game with their athleticism and shot way too high a percentage for us to have a chance,' said Tulsa coach Danny Manning. 'I told the players hopefully this loss stings, hopefully it burns. Our expectation is to be in the NCAA Touranament every year and hopefully get further than we did this year.'
UCLA went into halftime ahead 35-30 after trailing only once in the half, 3-2.
Tulsa, behind by as many as nine points, had created enough confusion within the UCLA defense to hang around.
When Steve Alford called timeout after Tulsa's 13-4 run tied the score 30-30, Kyle Anderson followed with a three-point play off a baseline fade.
It was Powell who led UCLA on to the court Friday night. The previous day he explained why the Bruins 'can really make a deep run' in the weeks ahead.
'We have the skill, we have the players -- it's just about concentrating,' he said. 'We have returners who have been here before and got eliminated last year and are hungry to get past this round. We're just ready to play and showcase what we can do. We're playing at a high level right now; so we want to continue to do that.'
The Pac-12 tournament title UCLA won last week is looking more impressive, given the NCAA Tournament victories by the teams it defeated: Oregon, Stanford and Arizona.
The reward was a spot in San Diego. 'It was a good thing that we didn't have to get on an airplane and deal with travel and jet lag,' Powell said. 'It was really easy for us.'
Seemingly, the basketball gods maintained UCLA's momentum Friday night even before Adams' 19-foot shot gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead.
Stephen F. Austin's upset removed in VCU a program that had won at least one game in the last three NCAA tournaments. The victory was Stephen F. Austin's 29th in a row. The Lumberjacks, however, will be giving up several inches to their opponent Sunday (tipoff 4:10 p.m.).
San Diego is again proving hospitable to the Bruins, who won both games at SDSU's arena in the 2006 sub-regional and won the 1975 Final Four at the Sport Arena. A victory Sunday would improve UCLA to 6-0 in NCAA Tournament games in San Diego.
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, March 22, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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