No. 3 UCLA routs SC for 3rd place in Maui
By Jim O'Connell
Associated Press
LAHAINA, Maui — Only once in the storied history of UCLA basketball have the Bruins shot better than they did yesterday in an 89-77 victory over South Carolina in the third-place game of the Maui Invitational.
Associated Press
The third-ranked Bruins bounced back from a loss to Ball State in the semifinals on Tuesday by shooting 72.9 percent, making 35 of 48 shots.
UCLA’s T.J. Cummings, shooting over South Carolina’s Tony Kitchens, went 11 for 12 to lead UCLA with 25 points.
Sophomore forward T.J. Cummings was 11-of-12 from the field and had career-highs of 25 points and nine rebounds.
"Every shot I put up I think is going in," said Cummings, the son of former NBA player Terry Cummings. "I thought I took some pretty good ones tonight."
The only time UCLA had a better shooting effort was on Jan. 24, 1996, when the Bruins went 38-for-52 (73.1 percent) against Southern California.
"We watched video for about three hours last night," UCLA coach Steve Lavin said, referring to how his team spent the hours after the 91-73 loss to Ball State. "I thought the kids did a good job of applying what they learned off that and it showed by shooting 72 percent."
The Bruins (2-1) shot 22-for-28 in the first half (78.6 percent) in opening a 21-point lead.
The Bruins took their first 20-point lead at 42-22 on a basket by Jason Kapono with 4:15 left. Their biggest lead in the first half was 46-25 on a jumper by Dijon Thompson with 1:51 to play.
The great shooting half was capped by a buzzer-beating jumper by Cummings that made it 48-30. The Bruins held South Carolina to 36 percent shooting in the first half and forced 10 turnovers.
• No. 4 Kansas 80, Seton Hall 62: Nick Collison had 22 points and a career-high 19 rebounds and the Jayhawks (2-1) took control with a 17-0 second-half run, turning back the Pirates (1-2) for fifth place.
A thundering dunk by Mauricio Branwell with 7:50 left brought the Pirates to 55-54, but that would be their last points for the next 4:11 as Kansas pulled away.
Collison started the run with a hook shot and freshman guard Aaron Miles scored on a fastbreak layup. Langford, another freshman guard, scored on a drive with 6:02 left and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but Collison tipped it in for a 63-54 lead. Langford scored the last four points of the run, the last two on a jumper with 3:55 left that made it 72-54.
Andre Barrett had all 18 of his points on 3-pointers for Seton Hall, while Darius Lane had 16 points, 12 from beyond the arc.
• Houston 76, Chaminade 73: Dominic Smith had 21 points, nine rebounds and five assists to lead the Cougars (1-2) to seventh place with a victory over the host Silverswords (0-3).
It was the 27th consecutive loss in the event for the Silverswords, who last won a game in their own tournament when they beat Stanford in double overtime to finish seventh in 1992.
Chaminade, a Division II school from Honolulu best known for its 1982 upset of then-No. 1 Virginia, led 68-64 when Albert Powell made two free throws with 5:35 to play. The Silverswords wouldn't score again until there were 29 seconds to play and by then Smith, a 5-foot-10 senior guard, had the Cougars up by five.
