UCLA Nearly Gets LeMoyned

One day after Syracuse lost an exhibition darby to DII Le Moyne, mighty UCLA needed a last-second shot to defeat their own crosstown ... rivals? NAIA Concordia University of Irvine (it took me ages to figure out which Concordia UCLA played) led the Bruins at half, and by as many as 8 points in the second half.

But the Bruins cut the lead to 61-57 with 2:10 remaining, and held the Eagles scoreless the rest of the game. With 16 seconds left, junior Mustafa Abdul-Hamid hit a three-pointer to give UCLA the 62-61 win.

(Who's Mustafa Abdul-Hamid? I wondered the same thing. Apparently he played just two minutes last year before tearing a ligament in his wrist and missing the whole year. Before that he'd been used only in garbage time.)

So what happened?

--First off, neither Michael Roll nor Jerime Anderson, both projected Bruin starters, played due to injury.

--The Bruins apparently didn't have their heads in the game, making just 9 of 19 free throws and committing 20 turnovers.

--UCLA freshman Mike Moser, Reeves Nelson and Tyler Honeycutt played a combined 36 minutes (Honeycutt started) and contributed exactly 0 points.

Abdul-Hamid saves the Bruins indignity of losing to an NAIA school that lost its top three scorers from last year, but this can't be the way Ben Howland wanted to start the year.

In other Pac-10 exhibition action, Washington beat Central Washington 77-48, and Arizona beat Augustana 92-76.