Murry Bartow’s honeymoon as interim coach of the UCLA Bruins is officially over. This afternoon, the Bruins lost a winnable game to crosstown rival Southern Cal Trojans, 80-67 and the Bruins have now dropped two straight to fall to 2-2 under Bartow. In reality, the game was much worse than the final score as UCLA mounted a late 12-0 run which cut the lead Southern Cal lead from 25 points to just 13 in the final minute and a half.
The Bruins started off inexcusably slow and were down 10-2 early in the half as Southern Cal’s ball movement seemed to baffle the Bruins and the all-too-familiar UCLA turnover epidemic provided Southern Cal extra chances to score early.