About Jill Painter

Jill Painter is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles News Group, covering everything from the Dodgers, Lakers, Clippers, USC, UCLA, Kings, golf and all human interest stories in sports.

Tony Parker big down stretch in UCLA’s 75-67 win over Alabama

In the final minute against Alabama, Tony Parker had a block, two rebounds and made both of his free throws to give UCLA a 75-67 victory in the final tuneup at Pauley Pavilion before Pac-12 play begins.

Parker was a 43 percent free-throw shooter before Saturday’s game, where he made 80 percent (4 of 5), including two with 56 seconds left.

“That’s (been weighing) big on me,” Parker said. “I thought I was a better free-throw throw shooter. I keep shooting them in practice. It’s big for me and my game because I will get fouled a lot.” Continue reading “Tony Parker big down stretch in UCLA’s 75-67 win over Alabama” »

UCLA rolls in dunkfest win over Chattanooga

UCLA had a chance to work on its dunking skills, and Norman Powell had five of UCLA’s 10 slams in this 106-65 win over Chattanooga.

Powell’s windmill dunk was the highlight of the evening as were the 106 points. UCLA hadn’t scored more than 100 points in a non-exhibition game in five years. And that’s because defensive-minded Ben Howland was coach.

This was a new kind of UCLA look to be sure. Kyle Anderson nearly had another triple double with 17 points 10 rebounds and 7 assists. Jordan Adams scored a team-high 22 points, and Tony Parker had a career-best 14 rebounds.

The Bruins are 5-0 for the first time since the 2007-08 season, when they won their first seven games.

UCLA coach Jim Mora post-practice

This is the Daily News’ HTML5-compatible media player.


Jim Mora also said that he is hopeful the team won’t run into any academic ineligibility issues as grades come back. Linebacker Anthony Barr said he was “very close to making a decision,” but wanted to let things work themselves out. He did say he was leaning towards staying, and is still waiting for his NFL evaluation before making a final choice.