IMPASSIONED BRUINS HALT SLIDE UCLA, DOWN BY 18 AT HALFTIME, RALLIES FOR FIRST VICTORY OVER USC SINCE 2002 UCLA 72, USC 69.Byline: Brian Dohn Staff Writer A week of uninterrupted practice to learn how to attack a zone defense did little to alter UCLA's downward spiral, and neither did a meeting against the Bruins' fiercest rival. Instead, it was an impassioned halftime speech by UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX coach Ben Howland Ben Howland (born May 28, 1957 in Lebanon, Oregon) is an American college head coach of men's basketball. He has been the head coach of the University of California, Los Angeles since 2003, and recently signed a contract extension through 2013. , and the second-half shooting of senior Dijon Thompson Dijon Lynn Thompson (born February 23, 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA) is an American professional basketball player for Alba Berlin of the German Bundesliga. , that may have rescued the Bruins' season. Thompson scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, including UCLA's last five points, to lead the Bruins back from an 18-point halftime deficit in a 72-69 triumph Saturday over USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. in front of 7,767 at the Sports Arena. UCLA (11-6, 5-4 Pac-10) ended a three-game losing streak, temporarily shelved talk of another late-season collapse and broke USC's four-game winning streak Noun 1. winning streak - a streak of wins streak, run - an unbroken series of events; "had a streak of bad luck"; "Nicklaus had a run of birdies" in the series. It was the Bruins' first victory over the Trojans since 2002. ``This was a huge gut-check for us to come back, on the road, down a big number again,'' Howland said. ``These guys do not drop their head when they get down. They fight back. We needed this win desperately, as everyone knows.'' After last week's debacle against Stanford and California, parallels were drawn to a year ago, when the Bruins opened Pacific-10 play with five wins but lost 11 of their final 13 league games. ``This was very important, and, hopefully, this will get something started again for us,'' UCLA guard Arron Afflalo Arron Agustin Afflalo (born October 15, 1985) is an American professional basketball player, currently with the Detroit Pistons. He recently completed a three-year career at University of California, Los Angeles in the Pacific Ten Conference of the NCAA as the starting shooting said. ``(Howland) gave us a real emotional (halftime) speech about having some pride, playing with a purpose. You can't play in a game of this magnitude, with this much emotion running around, and don't come out and play with some type of heart.'' USC (9-11, 2-7) was led in scoring by freshmen Nick Young (Cleveland High of Reseda), with 22 points, and Gabe Pruitt Gabriel Michael Pruitt (born on April 19, 1986 in Los Angeles, California) is an African American basketball player with the Boston Celtics. Biography College career On April 27 Pruitt announced that he registered for the 2007 NBA Draft. , with 19. Young, who scored 17 first-half points to push the Trojans' lead to 43-25 at intermission, was limited to 2-of-5 shooting after the break, partly because of Afflalo's tighter defense. ``We celebrated too much at halftime,'' Pruitt said. ``I think we were too confident. We relaxed and got too comfortable.'' The comfort level peaked when Pruitt's layin gave the Trojans a 47-30 lead with 18:53 remaining. Thompson then took over, stealing the ball on USC's next two possessions and scoring on a layup and dunk. Confounded by a 2-3 zone since last weekend, the Bruins began breaking USC's version when Brian Morrison and Josh Shipp Josh Shipp (born 23 January in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is an American motivational speaker and author focusing on youth and college-aged audiences. He is noted as being one of the youngest speakers ever accepted into the National Speakers Association. hit 3-pointers. Afflalo, scoreless in the first | Past_members = | Notable_instruments = }} Scoreless in the first is a Vancouver based sketch comedy group, formed in the summer of 2005. They have traveled to shows in Vancouver and Seattle, and are currently working on a series of shorts on youtube.com. half, then ripped USC out of the zone with three 3-pointers in 1:36, capping a 32-10 UCLA run with a 3 as UCLA went ahead 62-57 with 7:16 to play. ``We just started playing ball, playing together,'' said Farmar, from Taft High of Woodland Hills. ``We got out in transition, got some easy buckets, played good defense and rebounded. If we do that, we'll win every game. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what took so long, but thank God we turned it up in the second half.'' The Trojans, plagued by forced shots and careless careless adj., adv. 1) negligent. 2) the opposite of careful. A careless act can result in liability for damages to others. (See: negligent, negligence, care) passes, recovered to take a 65-63 lead on Pruitt's 3-pointer. After trading a few baskets, Thompson's two free throws gave UCLA a 71-69 lead with 56.9 seconds left. The Bruins forced a turnover on USC's possession, and Thompson added another free throw before Young missed a deep 3-pointer with 10 seconds left. ``It's always a good thing to beat 'SC, but the most important thing right now is that it was a great game to get out of that losing streak,'' Thompson said. ``My thing was to come into this game and not think about the rivalry. It was more the UCLA season and getting off this three-game losing streak. I couldn't care less about the USC rivalry.'' The comeback wasn't foreign to UCLA, which faced enormous deficits against Washington State (16 points) and Washington (21 points) before rallying for wins earlier this month. Digging early holes is an ongoing issue. USC pressed and zoned UCLA into 13 first-half turnovers, and the Trojans shot 53 percent. Even when the Bruins managed to shoot, it was usually far off the mark, and they went 10:45 without a field goal, missed nine of their first 11 shots and made only six first-half field goals. ``I guess we needed to be up by 30 to win,'' USC interim coach Jim Saia Jim Saia is a men's head basketball coach. Coaching Career Saia is currently head basketball coach at Fresno Pacific University. Prior to that he was the interim head coach at the USC between 2004 and 2005. said. ``We were up by 18. I warned them they would come back. It's unfortunate we cannot play 40 minutes of basketball. We just gave them the game.'' Brian Dohn, (818) 713-3607 brian.dohn(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) UCLA's Dijon Thompson, left, and USC's Joey Joey after Joseph Grimaldi, famous 19th-century clown. [Am. Hist.: Espy, 45] See : Clowns Ellis battle for possession of the ball Saturday night at the Sports Arena. (2) UCLA's Michael Fey keeps the ball from USC's Cory O'Neil as time runs out in the Bruins' 72-69 victory at the Sports Arena. Evan Yee/Staff Photographer |
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