UCLA basketball: Bruins win second exhibition game in China

SHANGHAI -- It took Jordan Adams just a few minutes to sweep away the bad memories.

The freshman guard is supposed to be one of the best shooters on the UCLA basketball team but looked jittery and off-target last weekend at the start of the Bruins’ three-game exhibition swing through China.

“My first college game wasn’t so good,” he said. “I didn’t want to have another bad one.”

On Monday night, Adams turned things around in a hurry, scoring 11 of his team’s first 13 points and propelling UCLA to a 72-31 victory against Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Adams ended up with 20 points, four assists and five steals. That was considerably better than his 4-for-14 performance against Tsinghua University in Beijing on Saturday.

Norman Powell added 13 points against SJTU, and Joshua Smith had 10. For those keeping score at home, Zhu Yi led the home team with 11 points.

Once again, the Bruins ran the floor against an opponent that was neither skilled enough nor talented enough to keep pace.

“I’m just really pleased with the way we shared the ball,” Coach Ben Howland said. “It even got to the point where we were over-passing.”

The outcome was all but decided with a 12-0 run in the final minutes of the second quarter, the gap widening to 44-14 at halftime.

After two games against over-matched Chinese college teams, UCLA is to face the professional Shanghai Sharks -- co-owned by former Houston Rocket star Yao Ming -- on Tuesday night.

It appears that the Sharks will be without key players, including several Americans and Chinese national team members on their roster. Still, Howland expected a tougher matchup.

“They’ve got size and length, and they can execute,” he said. “They’re well-coached.”

ALSO:

Roger Clemens looks good in return ... next stop MLB?

Gabby Douglas tells of bullying during interview with Oprah

Paralympics: Some athletes use pain as performance enhancer