UCLA Not Quite There in Opener

It was a late start.

To the game.

To the season.

No. 12 UCLA, its debut Tuesday pushed back to almost 9 p.m. because the women’s team went overtime in the opener of the doubleheader, overcame a bad first half, and a bad first night in general, to post a 76-57 victory over Fairfield before 7,273 at Pauley Pavilion.

Jerome Moiso scored 20 points to lead the Bruins. Freshman Jason Kapono had 16 in his college debut.

Fairfield did come in with its advantages--or at least without the drastic shortcomings that would normally accompany this matchup. For one thing, the Stags had already played twice, before UCLA had even once, and one of those games was Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse, every bit the college basketball mecca that Pauley Pavilion is. The Bruins could not count on the mystique factor.

And for another thing, this was more like the Bruins of the early preseason, working on conditioning and learning a new offense as they go.

Tuesday night, in fact, marked the first time that all 10 players--excluding Matt Barnes, out for at least the first four games because of academic difficulties, and redshirt-bound Todd Ramasar--have been available since Nov. 6.

That included Ray Young, cleared Monday night after practice to rejoin the team after the scare that included the possibility of surgery on his right thumb and two months on the sideline. Instead, he sat out only the two exhibition games before being green-lighted for the start to the regular season.

He was available. Whether he would be used was the question, with Coach Steve Lavin considering finding a few minutes against Fairfield but leaning toward waiting for Young to have a couple of full practices, instead of the non-contact work in recent days, and then using him against Iona on Saturday.

There was no such consideration for the others on the mend. Earl Watson, still sore from his hard fall in the exhibition game last week, started at point guard. JaRon Rush, bothered by a hyperextended elbow, was the first substitution, with 3:01 gone. Ryan Bailey, not yet at 100% with his foot injury, was the second and had already played 15 minutes against the California All-Stars. Dan Gadzuric had gone 16 that same night, one step in his eventual return to the starting lineup, whenever his knees allow.

Moiso was in his place Tuesday. The other four starters were also as expected--Kapono, Watson, Billy Knight, and Rico Hines as the 6-foot-4 power forward--a carry-over of the same five who had opened both exhibition games. Not by coincidence, they were also the only five who had made it this far largely unscathed.

The decision on Young came soon after. Wait until the second game? Lavin didn’t wait until the second half. The opener was only 6:22 old when Young went in.

The entire bench had been cleared within the first 12:54, a delay of that long only because Fairfield’s small lineup--not a strategy for speed, just Fairfield’s only lineup--meant rare opportunities for Sean Farnham. The Bruins ordinarily would have loved the matchup of quickness against quickness because of their superior depth, but the numerous injuries and lack of conditioning meant this was not ordinary circumstances.

If anything, it was a time to conserve energy, hoping instead to nurse the first few games along and wait for the return of good health. There went any idea of throwing consistent full-court pressure at Fairfield. There went any advantage from Fairfield playing its third road game in five days and three states.

“If we were at full strength,” Lavin said beforehand, “we’d be thinking we would press them for 40 minutes.”

That opportunity gone, the Bruins were quickly forced to reassess their options.

Survival, for one thing.

They trailed late in the first half and held only a 29-25 lead at the intermission, offering stretches of such bad play that it shouldn’t be acceptable even for a season opener or a team that has had little practice time together. UCLA shot 29.4% (10 of 34, including three of 14 on three-pointers) and had 14 turnovers against six assists those first 20 minutes. Fairfield, coming off blowout defeats at Kansas and Nevada Las Vegas, went 6-7, 6-6 and 6-5 across its starting front line and didn’t use anyone taller than 6-8--and still outrebounded the Bruins by five.

Moiso did his part, getting seven boards, and seven points, in the first half, but had little help. Gadzuric, most notably, had two fouls in three minutes and went back to the bench, making what had been a concern coming into the season an immediate worry.

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