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| Zach LaVine scored nine points against Arizona on Thursday (photo by Don Liebig) www.uclabruins.com |
UCLA trails Arizona 42-38 at the half
Jan 9 2014 7:19 pm
Daily Bruin
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It took a few minutes for patches of empty Pauley Pavilion seats to be filled in for Thursday night’s game against No. 1 Arizona.
The culprit? Horrible traffic clogging the streets of Westwood and entrances to campus parking structures.
UCLA held its own against a long Arizona defense for 20 minutes of play, drawing on what is undoubtedly Pauley Pavilion’s largest crowd of the young season. Still, the Bruins had trouble getting to the hoop against the Pac-12’s signature traffic jam of a defense, and trail 42-38 at the half.
UCLA struggled a bit late to earn a field goal percentage of 38.5 percent for the half, but struggled to get anywhere close to the paint. The Wildcats didn’t commit their first foul until well over seven minutes had expired, and the Bruins didn’t take a free throw until 5:31, shooting from the charity stripe a total of four times in the opening 20 minutes.
A layup from Arizona junior guard Nick Johnson gave the Wildcats a six-point lead, their largest lead of the half, while UCLA’s lone three-pointer, a miracle bank shot from freshman guard Bryce Alford, knotted things up at 29 with 4:50 remaining. The Wildcats closed the half on a 13-9 run.
Arizona’s biggest weapons of the half were Johnson, who had 10 points, as well as 7-foot center Kaleb Tarczewski, who nearly matched his per-game average with nine.
A big surprise for the Bruins has been their rebounding game, which stood at a plus-one advantage at the half. Redshirt senior forward Travis Wear and sophomore guard/forward Kyle Anderson each have six points, while sophomore forward/center Tony Parker is the Bruins’ leading scorer with eight.
Compiled by Andrew Erickson, Bruin Sports senior staff.
Bruins basketball narrowly defeated by Wildcats, 79-75
Jan 9 2014 11:09 pm
Daily Bruin
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Another big-time opponent, another tally in the loss column for UCLA basketball.
In a 79-75 loss, the Bruins’ first at home this season, the sequence momentarily appeared to be a rerun of UCLA’s previous defeats this season: face some adversity, turn the ball over and stand idly by as the game is pushed out of reach by a hungrier opponent.
UCLA hosted No. 1 Arizona Thursday night and played to a four-point halftime deficit before a slew of missed jumpers and layups ballooned the Wildcats’ lead to 13 with 6:16 left to play.
As a last-ditch three-point effort from freshman guard Zach LaVine clanked off the rim and Arizona junior guard Nick Johnson dribbled the remaining two seconds off the clock, it was clear the game’s result was the same, a loss the Bruins could have avoided.
But the path to get there could not have been more different.
“We’re not far off, we know that and it’s encouraging,” said coach Steve Alford. “I hope the loss hurts but there’s some encouragement coming out of this and it makes Sunday a vital game.”
With 6:16 left to play, Johnson quickly knifed his way through the UCLA defense before throwing down a ferocious slam dunk that gut-punched what had been an electric sellout Pauley Pavilion crowd.
The Bruins reached their giving point, but uncharacteristically pressed on, fighting back with a 13-0 run over the next 3:53. UCLA drew turnovers and made key free throws, but got its biggest lift in the form of sophomore guard Jordan Adams’ only-made three-pointer of the night. The 68-68 tie was the Bruins’ first time back to even since 1:50 remained in the first half. It brought the more than 13,000 present into a state of pandemonium.
UCLA had its moral victory. The trouble came in securing the actual one, as Arizona recovered to close the final 1:44 on a 10-5 run.
“Being down to a very good team with not so much time left in the game, I thought we did a very good job of fighting,” said sophomore guard/forward Kyle Anderson. “Previous losses I thought we would shut down but we fought hard today in the last four minutes … (but) we’re still upset and we’ve still got to find a way to get a win.”
They almost found it, too. With under a minute left and UCLA trailing 73-70, Alford called a play that left Adams open in the corner with a chance to tie. The shot looked on target to be Adams’ second scene-stealer of the night, but the rim decided one was enough.
“I thought it was perfect,” said Adams, who knocked down just four of his 15 field goal attempts. “Coach drew up a great play and we were down three he called me so I thought it was going in and it looked great, but it came up short.”
Arizona (16-0, 3-0 Pac-12) proved to be the toughest, longest defense UCLA (12-3, 1-1) has faced all season, making the Bruins earn their 75 points. Anderson, the team’s leading scorer, was held to just 16 points and no Bruin shot more than six free throws.
“It’s definitely, in our 15 games, the best defensive team we’ve played,” Alford said. “We didn’t get beat by an average team because we threw the ball all over the place.”
No, the Bruins didn’t lose because of turnovers, of which they committed just nine. They weren’t even plagued in the rebounding game. The difference this time was fundamentals.
A travel by Anderson with 40 seconds left, poor positioning by sophomore center/forward Tony Parker on a last-minute rebound leap and plenty of missed layups and free throws down the stretch kept Arizona’s perfect record intact.
“They’ve played a very demanding schedule,” Alford said of Arizona. “Our guys haven’t been in that many.”
Jahii Carson and Arizona State come into town on Sunday. The demanding await.
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