Welch, Holiday Lead UCLA Past Oregon State, 75-68
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Senior center Thomas Welch had 15 points and a career-high 17 rebounds and Aaron Holiday had 17 points and 10 assists to lead UCLA to a 75-68 victory over Oregon State on Thursday night.
UCLA (18-8, 9-5 Pac-12) remained tied for second in the conference with USC with the win, despite going just 4 of 21 on its 3-point attempts (19 percent) and 23 of 37 from the free-throw line (62 percent).
Alfred Hollins led Oregon State (13-12, 5-8) with 24 points. Stephen Thompson Jr. had 13 points. The Bruins held Beavers' leading scorer Tres Tinkle to 4-of-7 shooting and 11 points to snap Oregon State's two-game winning streak.
UCLA was able to overcome its shooting woes by outrebounding the Beavers 51-33.
Prince Ali hit added 11 points off the bench for UCLA, which has won five of its last six.
The Bruins had their fastbreak rolling early, going up by as many as 13 points with 7:50 left in the first half.
Oregon State's defense tightened, however, and the Beavers pulled to within 38-34 before UCLA settled for a 42-36 lead at the half.
The Bruins lost at Oregon State last month.
BIG PICTURE
Oregon State: Will have to finish strong in its last five games to get above the .500 mark in conference play and decent seeding for the conference tournament.
UCLA: After looking strong in wins over Arizona and USC, the Bruins had stumbled in their previous game against Arizona State but regained their form against the Beavers.
UP NEXT
Oregon State: The Beavers head across town on Saturday to play at USC, a team they lost to in their first meeting 74-67 in Corvallis.
UCLA: Will play host to Oregon on Saturday. The Ducks won the first meeting last month in Eugene, 94-91.
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