UCLA Basketball: Reserve Freshman Sticks To Scoring Fundamentals In Comeback Lafayette Win

The UCLA Bruins basketball team won their second game of the new season against Lafayette, but it didn't come easy. It saw UCLA trailing at halftime, but a second-half comeback sealed the win for the Bruins.

The final score of the game was 68-50, but the Bruins know that they can't have this happen again. They hope to start out stronger in games, and luckily they were able to push forward in the second half.

Freshman guard Sebastian Mack helped the comeback effort by getting back to the basics. He made the choice to drive the ball to initiate contact, leading to easy free throw attempts that ultimately helped UCLA get the win.

“I noticed that those guys, they were good on the rim but I feel like it is a big component of my game. Getting to the line, slowing everything down, being able to be patient with it but I mean it really just comes from the defensive end, us turning it up on that end. I feel like that’s the reason we stretched it away so much.”

Per Sebastian Mack via UCLABruins.com

The Bruins second-half performance displayed more about who they are as a team this year, than what transpired in the first part of the game. They likely took Lafayette for granted early on, but they found a way to turn things around, something good teams are able to do.

“We realized that we had to go small with them because they like to pick and pop. The smaller lineup could switch one through five and we realized that that was working, so we stayed with it. The main thing we focused on coming out of the second half was defensive stops and rebounds.”

Per Dylan Andrews via UCLABruins.com

Getting back to the basics of basketball seemed to help the Bruins, and hopefully, they can take from this game and learn moving forward. They won’t be able to have these slow starts against better competition, so this is a valuable learning experience for this young team.

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