Another game, another double-double for Markel Walker-- she continues to shine despite what I can only imagine must be a ridiculous amount of fatigue (she played 39 minutes today). The injuries keep on coming- we saw less than five minutes from Corinne Costa today, due to what I can only imagine is injury- she spent most of the rest of the game on the sideline working with the trainers. Between that and Madeline Brooks' 1 minute played, Cori Close played practically a six-player rotation today. Nevertheless, they managed to pull away in the second half despite ASU's much more balanced rotation and won decisively, 53-38. Now, pictures!

From 20120223WBB vs. ASU

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There's an obvious but crucial rule in basketball-- when the shots don't drop, you don't win. Today, the shooting just wasn't there, and I'm hesitant to even blame SC. It just seemed like we collectively couldn't make a basket to save our lives. Bruins shot 27.4% from the field, and at times, the game only stayed close because SC shot equally horribly at 34.5%, but the real defining statistic is the free throws. In a heavily officiated game, both teams racked up 20+ fouls, but Southern Cal took ten more trips to the line, and converted a higher percentage of their FTs.

In addition to the (practically) free points, the foul calls in the first half put literally half the Bruin team in foul trouble playing against a physical zone inside, almost forcing them to shoot the long jumpers and hope for the best. Between the fouls and the cold shooting, the late rally to avoid being blown out was impressive. As a few astute fans have noted (*cough* tbb24 *cough*), this team's main issue is fatigue (and depth, which goes hand in hand)-- when the shooting got cold and the starters got tired (and with the threat of foul-outs looming), there weren't many options for Cori Close, but you didn't click here for my rambling-- on to the pictures!

From 20120219WBB at Galen

Corinne Costa goes up for a shot block. She would be hit hardest by the officiating, fouling out with a lot of time remaining.

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This is going to be another sub-par pictures day-- partly due to poor positioning on my part, and partly due to the fact that there really weren't that many exciting plays (except that one where Josh Smith clothes-lined that one guy...which of course I missed). There's a lot of talk about $C getting a moral victory by avoiding the blowout, but I didn't see that. From my perspective, they were never in this game from the first possession, and everyone in the Sports Arena knew it. While I would have preferred us to turn that into the blowout it could have been, I honestly think the team didn't give a crap. This was a cruise-control win for them, and they knew it-- even Ben Howland wasn't as animated as he usually is on the sideline. The Wears bounced back from that abysmal Cal game, and that was great, but I could have used some more Josh Smith. I don't know, I guess I was envisioning a slam-dunk field day on SC's defense, but I'll take the W. Pictures!

From 20120216MBB vs. SUC

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That game was ugly, so I don't even really want to recap it. I'll limit it to this-- the shots weren't dropping, and we weren't adjusting. I was even conflicted about posting pictures, but I decided that you could always not look, so if nobody wants to remember this game, I won't be offended. Turns out that today was the day of Josh shots. *shrug*

From 20120211MBB vs. Cal

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I'm a little short on quality photos tonight, but hopefully these will convey something of what it was like to be there. Zeek was a force everywhere, racking up 21 points, 6 assists, and 6 steals while shooting 60% from downtown. Josh Smith was hobbled early by foul trouble, and while there were many ticky-tack fouls tonight, not all of his were so questionable. Despite that, he still managed to lead the team in rebounds (with 7), and added on 7 points. But to me, the stat of the game is Stanford's shooting; our defense held them to 39% shooting (season avg. 44%), and to 61 points, 10 below their season average. Without the points from their numerous (and often undeserved) trips to the charity stripe, this game would have been a lot more comfortable toward the end, so props to the team for dealing with the frequent whistles and ending on a 10-point run near the end to all but close it out and force the foul game.

From 20120209MBB vs. Stanford

Travis Wear throws down a momentum-changing transition dunk in the first half.

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Now that was a game. Bruins rallied late to overcome an untimely second-half slump to force OT, and once it got there, it was all Bruins. Rebekah Gardner led the team with 17 points, followed closely by Markel Walker's third straight double-double (16pt, 14rb) and Thea Lemberger's 15 points. The team showed great poise and control in OT, picking up their second straight OT win. On to the pictures!

From 20120202WBB vs. UW

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Since I'm so late, I'm going to skip the commentary and go straight to the shots. Click for big/info, and full gallery link is below each picture.

From 20120128MBB vs. Colorado

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I don't really have much to comment about this game-- we beat the spread against an opponent who was overmatched from the start. Josh Smith and Anthony Stover dominated, and Norman Powell made a pretty strong case for more PT. We were on the verge of double their score when the walk-ons came in. There really isn't much else to say but to wonder if they'll come out this strongly against Colorado on Saturday. On a more relevant-to-these-posts note, Saturday's pictures will almost certainly be late; I have a commitment immediately after the game until late.

On to the pictures! As usual, click for big/info and gallery link below each picture.

From 20120126MBB vs. Utah

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I've just returned from the Wooden Center, where Rebekah Gardner and Markel Walker powered the Bruins past Oregon State 69 - 60. Gardner barely missed a double-double with 19 points, 8 rebounds, and four steals, and Walker recorded a career-high 18 boards, while also adding 16 points. The game was really a story of two halves; in the first half, there were several lead changes and ties, almost ending on a 11-1 OSU run when a quick two baskets broke the tie and ended the half with a four point UCLA lead, 35 - 31. From that point on, OSU couldn't catch up, and we had a comfortable (8pt+) lead for most of the second half.

That said, a not-so-insignificant portion of this win has to be attributed to the below-average shooting on OSU's part. The box score says they shot 35.5% on the game, but it was worse than that-- there were several designed wide-open threes that clanked off the rim (or worse). Against a team that can knock those shots down, we'd have been in trouble. Now, it's unclear whether we left their shooter wide open because she was missing wide-open threes, or if they were just continuing to get their shooter wide open despite our trying to defend her, but had those shots dropped, we'd have had a different game and we can't realistically expect every team we play to shoot less than 40% from the field.

Despite that, we can't overlook the endurance test that this season is shaping up to be; four Bruins logged 30+ minutes, and only seven played-- that's at least three starters on the floor at any given time. With a bench nearly decimated by injury, we should get used to this seven-player rotation; it's here to stay this season. With that, on to the pictures! (As usual, click for big/more info, full gallery link below each picture)

From 20120119WBB vs. OSU

Markel Walker led the team in boards with a career-high 18, and added 16 points.

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For those of you who didn't watch or attend, the Women's basketball team just finished playing SC, and lost what was an up-and-down game by a final score 47 - 43. It really came down to depth and shooting-- UCLA had a seven-player rotation going throughout the game, and no Bruin played less than 16 minutes (and the second-least minutes played was 26). We showed no credible three-point threat, so they happily stayed in a zone defense through most of the game, which led to some frustrating misses in the paint-- we shot 30.4% overall, including no 3-pointers on seven tries. There were a few questionable no-calls on the physical zone they were playing, but what it really came down to was our inability to capitalize on missed FTs at the end. Though the score sheet says they won by four, the lead was only one when we started playing the foul game in earnest-- had we burned clock and scored on the second-to-last possession, the game would have gone to OT (2pt made) or we would have won (3pt made).

Here are the photos, and here's hoping we watch and learn from film of this before the rematch in Galen! As usual, click for big/more info and full gallery links are below each picture. Hope to see you next Women's game, this Thursday (1/19) at 7pm at the Wooden Center! (or at least, reading this afterward)

From 20120114WBB vs. USC

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-Bumped. BN Eds.

Yup, late again. Sorry, I'm lame. As usual, click for big, full gallery link below each picture.

From 20120109MBB vs. ASU

The return of the Josh Smith throwdown.

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Bumped. As usual fantastic pictures from b d. Many thanks to him. - BN Eds.

So, I meant to do this earlier today, but I ended up having a surprise dentist visit instead (second time this week, fourth this break...yay!) Anyway, seeing as most of the analysis has already been done, I'm going to be lazy and skip most of that. I will say though that we played better than I thought we would without Josh Smith (who, according to ESPN, was out with a concussion), and that the Wears, despite racking up an "impressive" nine fouls between them (many of which were ticky-tack), came out strong and combined for an even more impressive 34 points. Travis Wear came up with three blocks (below) and five boards on minutes.

When both Wears weren't on the floor, we played a lot of three-guard, which matched up well against Arizona's speedy guards (you might remember Fogg from two years ago, since he dropped 25+ on us each game). But, you didn't come here to hear me recap; on to the pictures!

As usual, click for big, full gallery link below each picture.

From 20110105MBBvs. AZ

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Bumped. - BN Eds.

I'm still recovering from being sick all of last week, so I'm going to keep the commentary short and get to bed quicker. The team built on the momentum from last week vs. UC Davis, and like that game, never let off the gas until the buzzer. Even in extended garbage time, when most of our players on the court had seen practically no PT up to now, despite the expected freshman mistakes they remained focused and maintained the killer instinct, which is how David Brown (who has a grand total of nine minutes on the season so far) managed four points on three minutes played.

Once I was willing to dismiss as a fluke, but this is the second game in a row that we have refused to play down to the competition and get comfortably arrogant with a large lead, and I see it as real progress. Does it have anything to do with the absence of Reeves? No idea, but this doesn't look like the same team that underestimated Middle Tennessee and LMU. As usual, click for big, full album link below each picture.

From 20111220MBB vs. UCI

Zeek slashes through two defenders. More after the jump!

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Tonight, our Women's Basketball team chalked up a W against a solid SDSU team looking to add us to what's shaping up to to be a pretty impressive resumé that includes a solid neutral site win over then #18 DePaul, and a convincing win over UW. We were very streaky, and sometimes sloppy, but both are to be expected from a young team with a shallow bench. The game really came down to the middle of the first half, where we went on a 20-0 run, and ended up outscoring SDSU by seven at halftime, which would turn out to be the final margin of victory.

I said our bench was shallow, but I think I should explain a bit more. For those of you who haven't seen the box score, we played seven different players tonight (compare to SDSU's twelve), and four of our five starters played 34 minutes or more. Moriah Faulk came in to provide relief at guard and did well, scoring 8 on 3-5 shooting (including 2-2 from three) on 11 minutes played, and Corinne Costa brought size and good post play-- despite the lack of scoring, she grabbed 4 boards and recorded a block on 17 minutes played. While that was certainly good bench play, the heroes tonight were undoubtedly Atonye Nyingifa and Rebekah Gardner, scoring 21 and 20, respectively, and leading the team in boards with 11 and 8.

If I had to point to one point we absolutely need to improve, it would be missed shots in the paint. While I spent the last bit gushing about the rebounds, almost half were offensive rebounds, most of which came from missed layups. We shot just 43% from the field tonight, and against teams that are bigger than us, that's going to be critical.

That's about all for the recap...you probably didn't come here to read my rantings (but if you did, sorry 'bout it-- I need to sleep so I can be on a plane to Oregon tomorrow...) On to the pictures! As usual, click for big, full gallery link below each, etc.

From 20111201WBB vs SDSU

It really was a story of fouls tonight-- SDSU racked up 25, to UCLA's 14.

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Finally, a convincing win against a quality D1 opponent! Here's what those of you still holding out for DG's ouster missed. I'm going to go straight to the pictures and comment picture by picture. Click for big, full gallery link beneath each picture, etc.

From 20111128MBB vs Pepperdin

The zone was highly effective tonight-- Pepperdine was continually confounded by the reach and space-taking ability of our bigs. A few blown plays resulted in easy buckets, but by and large, the zone was much more effective than the m2m I saw against Middle Tennessee.

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Despite not posting last night, I was there and I have pictures. I'm sure you'll all understand my lethargy after that game... I'm not going to analyze very much, since it's already been done, but I do want to point out that Josh Smith didn't stand around on D to excess. To my viewing, if anything, he over-committed to blocks, leaving him in the air and out of position after a missed block. Anyway, you know the drill; click for big, full gallery link below each picture, etc.

From 20111116MBB vs MTST

In this light, he almost looks like the savior I was almost hoping he'd be...

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Last night at the Wooden Center, the UCLA Women's Basketball team played its first game of the season, and its first under new head coach Cori Close. As some of you might not know, truebluebruin24 has graduated and can no longer attend games regularly, so the format of the Women's team recap posts is going to change. For now, I'm going to use the same style as for the Men's game pictures; as usual, click for big, full album link is below each picture.

From 20111108WBB vs vanguard

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Bumped. - BN Eds.

First basketball game of the season! I don't know what we did to anger the refereeing world as a whole this weekend, but that's two games in a row I've watched the officials try to give away. It's been a long day, so I'm just going to go straight to the pictures. Full gallery links below each picture, click for big, etc etc. Make sure you check back tomorrow to see Cori Close's debut as UCLA Women's Basketball head coach!

From 20111107MBB vs CSUSB

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Bumped. -BN

Well, here they are, after traveling a couple thousand miles. I would have had them up earlier, but we took a bus directly from the arena to the airport, and boarded the plane right after getting there. I sorted through them on the plane, and if the airborne wi-fi hadn't been $12, I would have probably done this on the return trip, but them's the breaks. Anyway, since most of the analysis has been done already, I'm just going to go straight to the pictures. The first few shots in the album are from the UK vs. WVU game, which we got to sit and watch the entirety of. As usual, click for big(ger) and full gallery link is below each picture. I may be selected to travel again if the women's team makes the third round, and I will provide shots from that if I go, but in case I don't, thanks for reading and see you next season!

From 20110319_NCAA MBB vs. UF

Reeves gets fouled on the way up

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Bumped. - BN

So, it's after 3am over here in Tampa, so forgive me if I don't have too much to say. That said, we had a hell of a game which could have only really been better for us if we had left less potential points at the line. I really can't blame our defense for that spate of three-balls near the end. They were hitting tough shots-- give them some credit. That's enough recap for me.

We had (quite literally) floor seats for this game, right behind the baseline (maybe ten feet back), and I think that that's why these are some of the best game photos I've taken yet. Enjoy!

From 20110318NCAA MBB vs. MSU

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Bumped. -BN

That was undoubtedly the best crowd I've seen in Pauley. Period. I fully believe that the players fed on the energy of the crowd, and while I won't take complete responsibility for the result, I'm positive that we had a discernible effect. I don't even know where to start. Reeves...broke out in a big way today. I remember, part-way through the first half, turning to my friend and saying "Holy shit, Reeves has 17 points already!" It just kept going from there. Of course, my photos are going to focus on the offensive dominance, since that more easily photographs than a good defensive performance, but I want to give massive props to the incredible defensive effort our guys put out today in the text. Derrick Williams was a non-issue in the second half. Kyle Fogg, who some of you might recall from last year (scoring 25 and 26 in two meetings with UCLA), scored 10.

Joshua Smith was beastly, despite the usual thinly-veiled vendetta calls from the refs. There were a few minutes where I was a little scared that he would get sidelined by foul trouble, but he pulled it together after two quick foul calls and picked up only one more over the rest of the game. Anthony Stover....that man is a shot-blocking machine. In stark contrast to last year around this time, I'm very comfortable with the 5. Jerime Anderson showed us that he has some pretty sweet finishing moves-- I've gained a lot of confidence in him as well over the last ten games or so. Enough of this, onto the pictures!

From 20110226MBB vs AZ

Malcolm Lee and Reeves Nelson celebrate as Ben Howland line-changes the bench in with less than a minute remaining. More after the jump!

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Bumped. -BN

I'm too tired to rehash the game, but I will say that it was the most balanced scoring effort I have seen in Pauley to date. Malcolm Lee pulled away from the pack a bit, but that was because he was on all game, while the rest of the team took about ten minutes to shake off the funk. On to the pictures!

From 20110225MBB vs ASU

Zeke shoots on the move. Contrary to what's being reported, he did still have a bit of tape on his shooting hand, though it's not visible in this picture (it is visible in photos #16,28, and 53 of the full gallery, however).

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Bumped. -BN

I'm definitely going light on the commentary tonight, because it's late and I'm tired. Malcolm Lee had another beast game, despite getting the shaft from the officials. Did he make a dumb foul or two? Yup. Should he have fouled out anywhere near when he did? Hell no. The turnovers were bad, and at times we were just plain old being too fancy for our own good (like the poorly-timed alley-oop attempt). On the other hand, there were some plays that I was sure weren't going to end well, but a crisp pass through traffic turned a probable TO into an easy layup or dunk. I'm probably missing a lot, but between being tired and waiting a while after the game was fresh in my head to write this, that's all I got. Pictures! (full gallery link is below each, click for bigger, etc.)

From 20110212MBB vs. OSU

I know I talked about ML in the text, but this is my favorite picture from today. Complete JS domination-- he brushes off the defender like he's saying "No, get outta my way-- it's dunk time." More after the jump!

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Bumped. -BN

This was undoubtedly the night of Malcolm Lee. I could have filled this post with pictures of ML-- offense, defense, you name it, he was on tonight, scoring 25pts in 39min of play. Really, it was a good night for the guards -- they racked up 45 of our 64 tonight, and it was a good night for them to step up. Joshua Smith was handcuffed by questionable officiating, scoring only 5 on 14 min coming off his back to back great games against U$C and St. John's. Reeves added 9, and Tyler Honeycutt, while a force on the boards, pulling down 13, was quiet offensively, scoring 5. On to the pictures!

From 20110210MBB vs. UO

Malcolm Lee on the transition dunk. More after the jump!

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Bumped. -BN

For those of you that didn't see this game one way or another, it was a very dirty game. As you'll see in one of the pictures in the slideshow, St John's racked up seven fouls in six minutes to start the second half, putting us in the bonus/double-bonus for most of the half. The refs still seem to have a vendetta against JS, but for the second game in a row, he has overcome it and had a great game _despite_ the shady officiating, instead of a crap game because of it. Reeves dominated the boards from about ten minutes in through the rest of the game, and we never really let them back in, despite a late-second-half mini-slump. It was a fairly close game throughout, and if anything, we pulled away at the end (due in large part to their flagrant and numerous fouls). Anyway, you didn't click this to hear me talk- on to the pictures! (as usual, click for big, full gallery link is below each)

(I didn't want to start off with a JS dunk two games in a row, but he was such a presence inside that I couldn't snub him like that after the game he had.)

From 20110205MBB vs. St Johns

One of a few monster JS dunks in the first ten minutes to set the tone early. More after the jump!

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Bumped. -BN

I'm not even going to say anything other than Joshua Smith was a BEAST. Our inside presence is back! Other than that, I'll let the photos speak for themselves. As usual, click for big. The full gallery has 139 photos, these are just the ones I thought are really representative of how the game went/are really good. Full gallery links are below each shot, and a slideshow (like the women's game posts) is at the bottom. Off we go!

From 20110202MBB vs. USC

Joshua Smith dunks over Alex Stepheson as Nikola Vucevic watches helplessly.

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Bumped. Cool shots. -BN

Another game, another late photo post from this guy. The photos just came off the camera tonight, since I spent yesterday (after the game) moving apartments, so I know I've been beaten to most of the analysis, but I'm going to write some anyway.

Those first twelve game-minutes were pretty bleak; I'll admit that I probably made the Texas guy face more than once. But, from about the eight-minute mark of the first half on, we played pretty good ball, built a solid lead, and didn't let them back in. The biggest surprise for me has been our guards. With Reeves Nelson quiet (score-wise) and Joshua Smith concussed, they stepped up and scored 43 out of our 68 points (63%). Malcolm Lee was the clear standout, shooting 54% (6-11) from the field, 50% (2-4) from three, and missing only one of his ten free throw attempts. He was the leading scorer with 23 points on 39 minutes. Zeke Jones was not far behind, while shooting only 3-10 from the field (1-5 from three), he more than compensated by drawing several fouls, and coming up big from the line (10-11 FT). He scored 17 on 30 minutes. Jerime Anderson, while only scoring 3 points (all from FTs), three-way-tied for the lead in assists and made a few sharp plays, turning the ball over only once on 21 minutes. Tyler Lamb did not have a particularly good game, missing the only shot he attempted (pictured below) and turning the ball over once on 5 minutes.

Reeves Nelson made his biggest impact on the boards, grabbing 10 on the day, and scoring 4 points on 30 minutes. He and Tyler Honeycutt were the other two parties in the three-way tie for assists with three apiece. Tyler Honeycutt is returning to his previous form, scoring 16, grabbing 8 boards, and blocking four shots on 37 minutes. Anthony Stover doesn't quite have the inside presence thing down yet, but scored 5 and grabbed 5 boards in 23 minutes. He's a good shot blocker, knocking away two, but we as a team need to take better advantage of blocked shots, as many of our blocked shots led to second-chance points for Stanford. The biggest takeaway from this game (at least for me) is that we don't absolutely need Joshua Smith inside, or Reeves Nelson to have a monster game for us to win. When Smith went down at the Cal game, I was worried that we might be screwed, but Saturday, the rest of the team proved me wrong, and I couldn't be happier to eat crow. But you didn't really come here to hear me ramble, so... On to the pictures!

From 20110123MBB vs. Stanford

Tyler Honeycutt goes up for a contested shot.

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Happy New Year, BN! Well, I'm late again-- between New Years, moving all my stuff back to Westwood for winter quarter and other nonsense, I didn't even take these off the camera until this afternoon. Seems like it was the Reeves and Joshua show (at least from my pictures). I'm not sure why I focused on them so much, but RN made some epic plays that made for some pretty good pictures. JS fouling out was definitely a turning point, and the injury to LJ was not pretty. From my perspective (through a long lens), it seemed like Isaiah Thomas got a lot of respect from the refs, and converted that into a lot of flops that turned into fouls. I'm not going to complain about that anymore, but I think with a healthy LJ and a JS that can stay out of foul trouble (and refs that don't throw the book at him), we win next time we meet them. I'm only uncertain because it will be at home for them. But enough of my prattling, onto the pictures. As usual, click for bigger, full album link below every picture, I left out some decent shots because of length.

From 20110103MBB vs. UW

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Bumped. -BN

Hey, guess what? This one is on time! I'm really glad I didn't decide to call in sick for this game, even though I have absolutely no voice now. Overall, it was a great game to be at; the excitement/noise level in Pauley tonight was the best I've seen this year. Except for the last few minutes of the first half when lethargy and poor officiating conspired to give a 15-0 run for WSU and foul trouble for Reeves Nelson and Josh Smith, it was a game of positives for us:

Even when we had to bench our inside presence in RN and JS, we found ways to score (including a spate of three-pointers from Lazeric Jones, Tyler Honeycutt, and Malcolm Lee). Much like the Wooden Classic game, CBH took a chance in playing RN and JS with four fouls apiece down the stretch (alternating JS when we were on offense, then subbing Brendan Lane when he could when we were on D, etc.), but their presence almost certainly sealed the W for us. But enough of my rambling, onto the pictures!

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Bumped. -BN

Hi BN! Once again, late and a double post. Even after I swore I would get around to this after each game, it still took me until tonight to finally go through all the photos I took this week-- between the two games and the holiday, I shot somewhere between 900 and 1000 frames this week. I know-- less excuses, more pictures. As usual: click for bigger.

From 20101222MBB vs. MTST

Many, many more after the jump (and in the full galleries!).

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