KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Guard, Billy Knight, tries to get the ball away from a Pepperdine defender, in the Bruins' loss to the Waves, Wednesday.

By Dylan Hernandez

Daily Bruin Senior Staff



Poor Jason Kapono.

He tried, he really did.

But no matter how rigorously the junior forward flailed his arms in front of a ballhandler attempting to cause a turnover, no matter how much he tried to muscle for inside position and no matter how many cuts he made to free himself, he couldn’t prevent his team from losing to Pepperdine Wednesday night.

With most of its players lacking any spirit until the waning minutes of the 85-76 loss, the No. 10 UCLA men’s basketball squad (2-2) was disrobed and exposed against a Wave team (2-1) that, at best, could be described as mediocre.

“Guys just don’t want to play defense,” said Kapono, who scored a game-high 28 points and grabbed seven rebounds. “Some of it has to do with skills, but our mindset isn’t there right now.

As was the case in the loss to Ball State in the semifinal of the Maui Invitational, UCLA couldn’t contain its opponents’ dribble penetration. The Bruins allowed forward “Colonel” Jimmy Miggins and guard Craig Lewis to score 20 and 18 points, respectively.

“Across the board defensively, we didn’t play any phase of the game well,” UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said.

But this time, the Bruins’ defensive frailties weren’t a result of poor preparation. In the week leading up to the game, the squad spent a significant portion of practice time working on defending its basket.

The problem, UCLA admitted, was effort.

Pepperdine 85

UCLA 76

“It’s a slap in the face after spending all that time (in practice following the Ball State loss) and not coming out in play,” Kapono said. “We knew we had to play better defense. We worked on our skills, our fundamentals. Name it all, we did it in practice, but in the game, we didn’t.”

Kapono, the Lavin-style diplomat that he is, included himself among those to blame. In truth, however, he was the main reason the Bruins were even in the game.

During the last four minutes of first half, Kapono hit four three- pointers for 12 of his 16 points before the break to give his team a 36-33 advantage entering halftime. And in the second half, when he was only able to launch one three-point attempt, he overcame his obvious deficiency in quickness and willed his way inside.

Even on the defensive end, he made an effort, which was more than what most of his teammates gave – especially in the second half, by which time they clearly abandoned their pregame plan to play defense.

Pepperdine guards slashed into the lane as they pleased, causing UCLA’s defensive walls to collapse and making the ball touch the net at a disturbing rate.

“Defensively, we were horrendous,” said plodding UCLA senior center Dan Gadzuric, who was rarely in the paint when he had to be. “We weren’t being smart. We made the same mistakes. They kept going to the middle. It’s miscommunication. We were just going through the motions.”

Yet, the game remained close due to Waves’ ineptitude.

Bruin senior forward Matt Barnes had an opportunity to level the score at 78 when he stepped to the free-throw line with 36 seconds remaining in the contest, but missed one of his two attempts.

Senior guard Billy Knight could have brought the Bruins to within one nine seconds later, but he too, made only one of two.

In all, UCLA converted only 14 of its 25 free throws.

The Bruins’ shooting from the floor was just as unimpressive, as UCLA made a mere 41.2 percent of its field goals.

Other than the performance of Kapono and perhaps that of Knight, who had 21 points but was a hole on defense, there were few positive notes for UCLA.

“UCLA’s got a long way to go if they want to be national champions and compete in the Pac-10,” Pepperdine head coach Paul Westphal said. “Coach Lavin has a way of always getting his players to play their best in big games. I’m sure he’ll do that again this year.”