Palouse Pressure, Seattle Showdown

So the Bruins had another nailbiter. They blew another 15 point lead to make it an extremely tight game at the end. But this time they managed to avoid overtime and avoid a loss. Behind Nikola Dragovic's third career game of the year (20 points), UCLA beat Washington State in Pullman 61-59.

Quick thoughts and facts:
-This was UCLA's 9th straight win against Washington State, and UCLA leads the all-time series 94-13.
-Nikola keeps getting better, and the team continued to shoot pretty well from the perimeter. That's good, because we weren't really getting much interior production.
-After last week's loss to ASU, Coach Howland said he needed to play the reserves more. They did play a little more this time, but not much. Jerime Anderson and Malcolm Lee need more playing time.
-Alfred was his usual intense self on defense, but he started out shooting 0/3 from the field on some tremendously questionable shots. He did step up to the challenge when needed at the free throw line, however.
-Darren didn't do much for most of the game, but really made a difference in the last few minutes when it was dangerously close.
-Josh Lazy Dog Shipp didn't do much.
-Despite the departure of Derrick Low and Robbie Cowgill, WSU still posed a great challenge to UCLA. This is likely a combination of the tough crowd in Pullman and UCLA's frontline, which still needs some work.

Tomorrow UCLA meets Washington at Washington, and surprisingly, it's an early battle for 1st place in the Pac-10. UCLA and the Huskies are tied for 1st, after Cal dropped out of the 3-way tie losing to Oregon State last night.

UCLA vs Washington is at 1p.m. PT on... surprise, surprise, FSN Prime Ticket.