UCLA basketball: Dreadful effort nets Bruins a 76-59 loss to Oregon

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It’s going to be a long weekend for UCLA even though the Bruins won’t play again.

Second-seeded UCLA came out with another poor start and couldn’t recover during a 76-59 loss to seventh-seeded Oregon on Thursday night at Staples Center in a Pacific Life Pac-10 tournament quarterfinal. The Bruins will have all day Friday and Saturday to think about it.

UCLA fell behind by 15 points in the first half and was unable to muster one of its patented rallies against a team it had defeated twice during the regular season. Oregon (16-16) advanced to play the winner of the late game between third-seeded Washington and sixth-seeded Washington State in a semifinal Friday.

The Bruins (22-9) were considered a NCAA tournament lock by most prognosticators regardless of their performance in the Pac-10 tournament, but they could be relegated to a No. 8 or a No. 9 seeding in the wake of their early exit.

Ducks forward E.J. Singler was a star for a second consecutive game, scoring 24 points on seven-for-nine shooting. He made a buzzer-beating three-pointer to end the first half and converted both of his three-point attempts overall.

Sophomore forward Reeves Nelson, the Bruins’ leading scorer, collected all seven of his points in the second half, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Nelson and fellow big man Joshua Smith (five points) spent the last few minutes on the bench with the outcome already decided.

UCLA junior guard Malcolm Lee seemed a step slow playing with a small cartilage tear in his left knee, finishing with six points. Sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt scored 19 points but made only five of 13 shots.

The Bruins seemed out of sync from the outset, missing free throws and getting called for a technical foul after having six players on the court coming out of a timeout in the first half. Nelson received a technical in the second half for apparently complaining about a non-call underneath the basket.

Oregon shot 50% to UCLA’s 34.5% while handing the Bruins their worst loss of the season.

We’ll have more later at www.latimes.com/sports.

--Ben Bolch