EA Sports, It’s in the Game, UCLA Is Not

Improvement, or continued incompetence? A week after UCLA lost its first men’s basketball exhibition by 24 points, the Bruins played another collection of former college players more closely, losing, 70-64, to EA Sports on Tuesday night at Pauley Pavilion.

EA Sports was 0-12 and had lost the previous four nights, including 118-79 to Georgia on Monday. But the Bruins were no match for a team led by former Arizona forward Bennett Davison (18 points) and former Santa Clara guard Brian Jones (17).

UCLA forward Jason Kapono did not play because of a sprained right thumb. Senior guard Ray Young scored 26 points to lead the Bruins, who shot 39.6%. “I’m discouraged, we played poorly and we have a long, long way to go,” Coach Steve Lavin said. “We’ve made incremental progress [since the first loss]. But we are not going to become a well-oiled machine in a week.”