Thompson Upset About Early Fouls

When UCLA senior Dijon Thompson committed his second foul with 15:01 left in the first half of an 83-73 loss to Arizona on Saturday at Pauley Pavilion, his shoulders slumped and Coach Ben Howland had to put his leading scorer and rebounder on the bench.

“I think Dijon lost a little aggressiveness on defense,” Howland said. Thompson scored only 10 points, almost nine below his average, and he wasn’t thrilled about the referees.

His first foul came after Thompson tried to slap at a ball after he had missed a rebound. “I thought the first foul was really, really ticky-tack,” Thompson said. “Different refs call each Pac-10 game differently, and it’s hard to adjust. I was definitely less aggressive after that as far as ball pressure on defense.”

Thompson’s lackluster performance of 10 points and three rebounds (his worst rebounding effort since he had three against Long Beach State in December) came in front of 20 NBA scouts, including Jerry West of Memphis and Pat Riley of Miami. Former Bruin basketball players Baron Davis and Ed O’Bannon and football players Freddie Mitchell, Matt Ware and Cade McNown were also in the stands.

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Freshman forward Josh Shipp, UCLA’s second-leading rebounder, had only two rebounds and seven points. He played his second game with a pad on his injured right thigh. Ryan Hollins gave Shipp a deep bruise in practice last Tuesday and Shipp said he felt hampered Saturday. “It’s real sore,” Shipp said. “I feel like my leg lost strength as the game went on.”

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The win was Arizona Coach Lute Olson’s 301st in the Pac-10 and leaves him three behind all-time leader John Wooden’s 304 at UCLA. “Coach Wooden has been a good friend for a long time,” Olson said. “It’s always a pleasure to come in here and see him.” ... The Wildcats were 31 of 62 from the field for 50% shooting; it was the sixth time in their last seven games they shot 50% or better.

UP NEXT

Thursday at California, 7:30 p.m., FSNW -- The Bears gave UCLA its worst loss of the year when they came into Pauley last month with only eight healthy scholarship players and held the Bruins to their lowest scoring total of the year in a 64-51 loss.