Washington's C.J. Wilcox steals the ball from UCLA's Jerime Anderson during their Pac-10 game Thursday night. Anderson had a team-high 16 points in the loss. (Dean Rutz / McClatchy-Tribune / March 3, 2011)Bruins get run over by the Huskies
Washington uses a late 14-0 spurt for a 70-63 victory, damaging UCLA's Pac-10 title hopes.
By Ben Bolch
The Los Angeles Times
11:20 PM PST, March 3, 2011
Reporting from Seattle
Joshua Smith was five minutes from a happy homecoming.
The UCLA freshman center had already logged a double-double in his return to the Pacific Northwest, sparking the Bruins to a four-point lead at a place they rarely win. His mother had an assist of sorts by distracting Washington players with shrieking sounds as they shot free throws.
"It's a screech-slash-birdcall-slash-dying animal," Smith said of the noise his mother made while seated behind the UCLA bench.
Ultimately, the Bruins were the ones who went limp in the final minutes Thursday at Alaska Airlines Arena, surrendering 14 consecutive points during an eventual 70-63 loss that marked their seventh consecutive defeat here.
UCLA missed four consecutive shots and committed three turnovers in a 4-minute 17-second span, allowing the Huskies to transform a four-point deficit into a 63-53 lead with 1:38 remaining.
"It definitely seemed out of nowhere," Bruins guard Jerime Anderson said of Washington's 14-0 run. "I really don't know what was going on at that time."
He wasn't the only UCLA player who seemed lost.
Holding a 53-49 lead, the Bruins left C.J. Wilcox open in transition and the red-hot Huskies guard hit a three-pointer that started Washington's surge. Wilcox scored all of his career-high 24 points in the second half for the Huskies (20-9 overall, 11-6 Pac-10), who pulled to within a game of the Bruins (21-9, 12-5) in the conference standings with one game left in the regular season.
UCLA, which trails first-place Arizona by one game in the Pac-10, concludes conference play Saturday at Washington State.
The Bruins lost despite an inspired effort by Anderson, who scored all of his career-high 16 points in the second half. Smith finished with 12 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
Just about everything that could go wrong did for UCLA in the second half after the Bruins held Washington to 21.2% shooting on the way to taking a 25-24 halftime lead.
Junior guard Malcolm Lee sat out long stretches because of cramps, meaning UCLA Coach Ben Howland couldn't put his best defender on Wilcox. The Bruins also ran out of timeouts with 12:57 remaining, in part because they had burned one when they had trouble getting the ball inbounds and used another to take Reeves Nelson out of the game late in the first half because of fatigue.
Things only deteriorated from there for Nelson, who had 10 points at halftime.
He missed all five of his second-half shots, committed a charging violation with UCLA holding a four-point lead and was called for a technical foul when he slapped the floor in frustration with 10:45 left.
Smith, the native of Kent, Wash., who spurned Washington for UCLA, shrugged off the mean-spirited chants that came his way throughout the game.
"They're ignorant," said Smith, who had 18 family members and friends in attendance. "They have to say whatever they have to say. It doesn't bother me at all."
Still, UCLA had the ball and a 53-49 lead with 5:39 remaining.
But Smith threw a pass that was intercepted, sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt traveled on the next possession and then Smith missed two consecutive putbacks, spurring Washington's surge.
Howland conceded that the raucous atmosphere contributed to his team unraveling in the final minutes.
"It's some of that," he said. "But it's March now."
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UCLA unravels with game, Pac-10 title on the lineBy SCOTT M. REID
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: March 3, 2011
Updated: 11:10 p.m.
SEATTLE – With the game, the Pac-10 lead, and likely the conference title on the line late in the second half, Washington guard C.J. Wilcox was the hottest player on the floor at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Thursday night, and UCLA couldn't locate him as play rushed toward the Huskies' end.
"Wilcox was wide open." UCLA freshman center Joshua Smith said. "No one knew who had him."
Wilcox drained a 3-point jumper to launch a 14-0 Washington run on the way to a 70-63 victory that dealt a major if not fatal blow to UCLA's Pac-10 regular-season title hopes.
The conference title lost in transition.
UCLA (21-9, 12-5 Pac-10) fell one game behind leader Arizona in the Pac-10 standings despite playing one of its best defensive games of the season.
The Bruins held the Huskies to 21.2 percent shooting in the opening half, and defensive stopper Malcolm Lee held All-Pac-10 guard Isaiah Thomas scoreless in the first half and to nine points overall.
"When was the last time Isaiah Thomas didn't score in a half?" UCLA coach Ben Howland asked.
Smith pulled down a career-high 16 rebounds.
"We did the right things," Smith said.
However, the Bruins could not contain Wilcox, who whether coming off screens or finding holes in transition fueled by 18 UCLA turnovers, scored all of his career-high 24 points in the secona half.
A Jerime Anderson 3-pointer put UCLA up, 53-49, with 5:55 left, Then Wilcox responded with a 3-pointer, one of his four. By the time Wilcox converted a 3-point play the old-fashioned way with 2:38 remaining, Washington was up, 59-53, and UCLA's title hopes were fading fast.
"He (Wilcox) hit those first couple of shots," Anderson said, "and that got them going and they just kept going."
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Washington's Wilcox scorches Bruins
By Jon Gold jon.gold@dailynews.com Staff Writer
Posted: 03/04/2011 02:07:14 AM PST
Updated: 03/04/2011 02:08:27 AM PST
SEATTLE - Shot after shot, dagger after dagger, C.J. Wilcox was getting harder to miss.
With every subsequent game-saving basket, the Washington Huskies guard's star grew brighter and brighter, all the eyes of Hec Edmundson Pavilion tracking him down the court.
All but UCLA's, it seems.
There he was, tucked into the left corner for a wide-open 3-pointer, shrinking the late UCLA lead to one.
There he was at the top of the key less than three minutes later for a shot-clock-beating three-point play, the deepest cut in a 14-0 Washington run.
Wilcox was here, there, everywhere, pouring in 24 second-half points as a late surge gave the Huskies the 70-63 win.
"We had a great opportunity to win on the road in a very tough environment," UCLA head coach Ben Howland said. "Our defense was really good tonight, especially in the first half, with the exception of Wilcox. He had 24 points in the second half. We had a one-point lead with the ball going in, we missed a decent shot and he came down and got them going in a hurry and never stopped."
UCLA led 53-49 with 5:55 left following a 3-pointer by Jerime Anderson, who led the team with 16 points. The Bruins were soaring, a 13-5 run lifting the team ahead of the balanced Huskies.
And then the bleeding started.
And it poured and poured and poured, UCLA needing either a timeout or a tourniquet. They had neither. Howland used all of his timeouts by the 12-minute mark in the second half, trying to stop earlier runs. And there wasn't a bandage in Seattle big enough to stop Wilcox. Certainly not one readily available, not with UCLA junior guard Malcolm Lee nursing cramps for a big stretch in the second quarter.
Led by Wilcox, who hit 7 of 10 shots, including 4 of 7 3-pointers in his career-best performance, the Huskies simply blitzed the Bruins.
"It definitely seemed out of nowhere," Anderson said. "I really don't know what was going on at that time. It was such a scrambled situation. They got a lot of easy buckets, easy open shots. At that time, our defensive intensity wasn't to where it should've been. That run hurt us."
The turnovers stung a little bit more, the hydrogen peroxide in the gaping wound.
UCLA committed gaffe after gaffe during Washington's run, the hostile environment toying with the young Bruins.
In winning their seventh straight over UCLA at Hec Ed, the Huskies fed off the energy of the crowd, overcoming a porous first-half to build momentum as the game got closer.
"It's some of that, but it's March now," Howland said when asked if the team was affected by the crowd. "We've been in some tough environments and this is one of the toughest in our conference. (It hurt) not having a timeout or two to be able to shut it down there."
The Washington crowd was particularly hostile to Bruin freshman center Joshua Smith, making his homecoming. The Kent, Wash., native - who committed to UCLA over the Huskies to the ire of Washington fans - had 12 points and 16 rebounds, but also committed five turnovers.
The Bruins finished with 18 giveaways for the game after committing just eight in the team's 71-49 win over Arizona last Saturday at Pauley Pavilion, a win that put the team tied atop the Pac-10 with the Wildcats.
Now UCLA is a game behind with one left to play, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Washington State.
"The turnovers hurt us," Howland said. "Their pressure did a good job of forcing 18 turnovers. We lost our composure a couple of times."
Never more so than with 10:45 left in the game.
With the Bruins trailing 40-38 after a Smith putback of a Reeves Nelson miss, Nelson was called for a technical foul for slapping the floor in frustration.
"I was just really upset with myself because, like I said, I couldn't really make anything in the second half," said Nelson, who finished with 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting. "The ref thought I was upset at him but I went up to him after and said I was mad at myself. But the perception was that I was mad at him."
Ultimately, all the Bruins are internalizing their personal frustration, knowing they let a winnable game slip away.
"I was surprised - we're usually good at stopping the bleeding, but they have a good crowd here, and you could basically just feel the momentum shifting," Lee said. "That's no excuse; I still think we should've been able to stop the bleeding. They just got that confidence."
Click on boxscore to enlarge (Yahoo Sports)
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