Henderson Does It All for Bruins

UCLA sophomore J.R. Henderson swooped to the basket, rebounded strongly and continued his prolific preseason Tuesday night.

In the Bruins’ sloppy 111-95 victory over New City Sports, a traveling group of former college players, the 6-foot-9 Henderson led the way with 25 points and 13 rebounds in 25 minutes before 5,649 at Pauley Pavilion.

“I don’t ask for him to do that, he just does it,” UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said. “We expect him to do that.”

Henderson, who has moved into Ed O’Bannon’s starting spot and is also pegged as the team’s backup point guard, also scored a game-high 33 points in last week’s intrasquad game.

“I knew I was going to see more minutes, and that’d mean more points,” Henderson said. “I’m not the type of player who’s going to sit out there asleep. If I’m not getting the ball, I’ll hit the boards, get a rebound and put it back in or something.

“That’s what I want to do this year, stay active.”

Starting point guard Cameron Dollar, who had 11 assists and five steals, said Henderson has the talent to be a major focal point of this year’s team.

“He has the kind of skills to take over a game,” Dollar said. “My job as a point guard is to get him the ball.”

In the battle for the starting center spot, junior Ike Nwankwo got the start, but freshman Jelani McCoy (12 points on several huge dunks and eight blocked shots) and sophomore omm’A Givens (eight points) had the splashier moments.

After the game, Harrick worried about the team’s defensive lapses--New City scored 57 second-half points--and by UCLA’s 22 turnovers. He said he was most pleased by the play of senior Kevin Dempsey, who followed up a strong intrasquad performance with 15 points on seven-of-nine shooting Tuesday.