UCLA down six at the half to Fullerton

Decimated by injuries throughout the preseason, UCLA knew the early season would be a struggle.
The Bruins fully understood that without adequate court time, pure passes would be scarce, on-ball defense would be a worry and clean screens would be hard to come by.
But not this hard.

As the first half dwindled down against Cal State Fullerton in UCLA's season-opener, the boo-birds came out, the Bruins trailing 33-27.
As bad as it looked early, neither team scoring until almost three minutes into the game, it would get worse for UCLA.

The Bruins shot 12-of-36 in the first half while allowing the Titans a 46.4 percent clip, as Fullerton was able to get the basket on UCLA guards Jerime Anderson and Malcolm Lee.
Case-in-point: Cal State Fullerton guard Jacques Streeter pulled a beautiful dribble-drive on Anderson, two plays after Bruin senior forward James Keefe tagged Anderson in the back with a pass.

More worrisome, though, a two-minute run to close the half.
Fullerton outscored the Bruins 8-4 to close the half, and if not for a rebound-and-putback by freshman forward Reeves Nelson on an airball floater by Anderson, the fans would have really let UCLA have it.

Nelson was possibly the lone bright spot early for the Bruins scoring five points and grabbing four rebounds off the bench.
Lee was on his game offensively, cutting through the Titans for 10 points, though his counterpoint, guard Aaron Thompson, had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

Forward Gerard Anderson added nine points for Fullerton, while senior guard Michael Roll chipped in six first-half points for the Bruins, who shot 0-for-7 from the 3-point line.