Muhammad keys UCLA victory

NEW YORK – In his first game in UCLA’s starting lineup, Shabazz Muhammad played like a regular.
He got to the line, he took big shots, and the highly touted freshman from Bishop Gorman High School helped the 11th-ranked Bruins avoid what would have been a pretty discouraging loss.
Muhammad scored 21 points, and UCLA made enough free throws late to hold off Georgia for a 60-56 win Tuesday night in the consolation game of the Legends Classic.
“It was obviously an important win to bounce back after a disappointing defeat last night,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said, alluding to Monday’s loss to Georgetown, in which Muhammad played his first college game – but didn’t start - and scored 15 points.
In the final minutes of a mostly dreary game against Georgia, UCLA (4-1) took the lead with Muhammad on the bench, on baskets by Travis Wear and Jordan Adams, but the hyped freshman re-entered with 1:58 left and the game still in doubt.
“I thought I was really getting more comfortable out there,” Muhammad said. “I was getting open on the screens and mismatches down low.”
He made two free throws with 1:15 left, then scooped up a loose ball on the other end with a minute remaining and passed to Norman Powell, who was fouled attempting a layup.
Powell made one of his free throws, and the Bruins closed it out at the line to rebound from a tough loss and avoid a long flight back to the West Coast.
“I thought the difference in the game was the free-throw line,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “We didn’t get there enough, they got there a bunch, and they outscored us about 14 points at the foul line in a low-scoring game.”
Muhammad actually took more free throws than the entire Georgia team, going 8 of 11. The Bulldogs shot 6 of 10 from the line.
“We didn’t make the plays in the heart of the game that we needed to make,” Fox said.
Wear finished with 10 points and eight rebounds for UCLA, and Kyle Anderson had nine rebounds and nine points.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led the Bulldogs (1-4) with 16 points and had eight rebounds. Marcus Thornton had 10 rebounds for Georgia.
Muhammad played 28 minutes in his first start of the season, after playing as a reserve on Monday night in the Bruins’ 78-70 loss to unranked Georgetown. He appeared winded in the final five minutes of the game and had to take a breather before coming back for the final two minutes.
“We’re learning how to play with Shabazz tonight. We didn’t play with him all summer,” Howland said. “Obviously, he’s got to continue to work to be a better defender, as do all our players.”