Bruins Fall To Notre Dame and Harangody

What a difference a year makes.

The UCLA Bruins continued their downward slide, albeit with a more spirited effort, losing to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 84-73 Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Indiana.

Notre Dame was led by senior star Luke Harangody, who put up 23 points and 7 boards on 9-19 shooting from the floor. Those numbers were even more impressive considering that Harangody missed his first four shots, and thus, finished the game shooting 9-15.

For Harangody, this marked a payback game of sorts, as he was shut down in last year's Bruins' blowout victory by UCLA senior center Alfred Aboya.

With no Aboya around this time, Haragody displayed his full arsenal of low post hooks, offensive put-backs, and 15-foot jumpers. He even threw in a surprisingly graceful 360 spinning floater off the dribble for good measure. Such efforts helped erase UCLA's early 26-20 advantage, as the Irish ended the first half up 40-36, behind a 13-6 closing run.

In the second half, Notre Dame's perimeter marksmanship increased the Irish lead, as Tim Abromaitis and Ben Hansbrough each went 3-4 from three point land on their way to finishing with 17 and 14 points respectively. Hansbrough hit a particularly deep trey early in the half for a 48-39 lead.

The Bruins showed some fight however, as they rallied to cut the deficit to 61-55 on a Michael Roll pull-up three in transition. The hot-shooting Roll would eventually finish with 19 points and 5 assists on 5-8 shooting from behind the arc.

Nevertheless, Notre Dame answered the Bruin charge with an Abromaitis three that expanded the lead to 67-57 at 7:41 mark of the second half.

UCLA made one final 7-0 run with under two minutes left in the game, when Malcolm Lee poured in 5 points to cut the lead to 76-70. However, the Bruins would get no closer, eventually losing the contest and dropping to 3-7 on the year.

Notre Dame improved to 10-2, and rebounded from last week's ugly upset loss to Loyola Marymount University.

Post Game Notes

1. Bruins guard Malcolm Lee had a breakout performance, scoring 29 points on 11-17 shooting, including 4-6 from three point land. He also had 4 assists.

Now that Drew Gordon has transferred, Lee has become the Bruins top offensive threat on the floor, and their best defender as well.

2. Notre Dame held a significant 35-24 edge on the boards, and enjoyed several second chance opportunities due to their 12 offensive rebounds.

3. Both teams shot quite well as UCLA hit 49% of their shots and Notre Dame made 50%. Both teams hit 9 treys and hit at least 50% from behind the arc.

4. Bruins freshman Reeves Nelson had another solid game in the low post, putting up 11 points and grabbing 8 boards.

By Mike Elliott
Staff Editor for TheDailySportsHerald.com