UCLA got off to a hot shooting start and for once did not have to rely on their top tier D. Unfortunately, they cooled off (42% shooting inclusive of 45% from the arc) and my biggest concern materialized: Bittle.
What also hurt was 2 early PFs on Kobe, who wound up playing for only 2 mins in the 1H. Fortunately we got a critical lift off the bench led by Lazar and Mack on the O end.
Bittle: Oregon's leading scorer and leading rebounder was the leading scorer (14 pts) AND the leading rebounder (4) in the 1H. He was also a factor on D, as the tri-partite CMC anti-Biddle rotation were all held to 1 hoop & 2 pts, with Biddle playing D against all 3 at times. Shelstad also played well in giving OR some effective inside-outside balance.
We're getting convincingly out-boarded, 19-11 which will be a key metric in the 2H. Hopefully their Big Two, Biddle and Shelstad will cool off in the 2H, but that's normally not the script from OR who tends to play better at crunch time. I think this will be a difficult one for us to pull out given the matchups viz our bogeyman, namely, the low blocks.
GO BRUINS!