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Nov. 9—HENDERSON, Nevada — Donovan Dent could have been the point guard at UCLA.
Friday night, the Bruins sure wish he was.
The Lobos junior point guard — the former Mr. California high school star who UCLA chose not to offer a scholarship to three years ago — had 17 points, eight assists and almost single-handedly disrupted the Bruins high-pressure, trapping defense time and again in the Lobos’ 72-64 win over No. 22 UCLA in the Las Vegas Hoopfest in the Lee’s Family Forum.
“I mean, hometown kid from there, never got offered from them — it was a little bit of a personal game for me,” Dent said. “… I wanted to win this one bad. I think the whole team did. And we came out and did a great job executing.”
UNM never trailed and the game was tied just once at 2-2 in the first minute. The Lobos would lead by as many as 16 points and answered every UCLA run.
Dent was far from perfect — 9 turnovers, 1-for-4 at the free throw line — but he was clearly the difference.
“We thought they’d pressure. We thought they’d attack him. And he did some amazing things,” UNM coach Richard Pitino said. “The turnovers, some of it was our guys dropping in the ball. But, I mean, he was so poised, so under control, and just really, really delivered in the moment.”
The Lobos scored 21 points off 21 UCLA turnovers, outscored the Big Ten’s newest member 36-24 in the paint and, even with UCLA cutting what was as much as a 16-point lead down to single digits multiple times in the second half, the game was really never in question.
Nelly Junior Joseph scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half and his 12 rebounds gave him a second double-double to start the season. Friday, he was as big in the first half as UCLA’s Tyler Bilodeau (23 points, 15 rebounds) was in the second half.
The difference was Bilodeau, UCLA’s only double-digit scorer, didn’t get the help Junior Joseph did.
“I told them at halftime, make them stop Nelly or Donnie,” Pitino said. “I think Nelly was really good in the post. Donnie…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mexico-upsets-no-22-ucla-150100735.html
Author : Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
Publish date : 2024-11-09 15:01:00
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