SAN DIEGO — UCLA coach Steve Alford has repeatedly said the Bruins have gone through the season with no drama.
Not really.
The Bruins had all the drama they could handle with Tulsa in their first NCAA Tournament game here. For a while anyway. UCLA kept letting Tulsa hang around and the Golden Hurricane cut the lead to five points with five minutes left, but UCLA pulled away in the final few minutes to win, 76-59.
It sure wasn’t that easy, but with so many favored teams falling, a win by any margin is a grand thing.
And Alford will take a win in the NCAA Tournament, especially considering he coached New Mexico to a first-round loss to Harvard last year.
Up next for UCLA is No. 12 seed Stephen F. Austin on Sunday.
UCLA had a 35-30 lead at halftime, and the Bruins sure must’ve felt like they should’ve been up by double digits.
“They competed well in the first half,” Jordan Adams said of Tulsa. “Both teams battled hard. We’re just glad we broke away in the second half.”
UCLA needed a killer instinct much earlier, but Norman Powell, playing in front of his hometown crowd, got a steal, saved the ball from going out of bounds, made a shot, drew a foul and converted the three-point play to give UCLA a 63-54 lead with 4:11 left.
That saved the day.
“I thought it was a great energy boost for our team, being able to make that play,” Powell said. “Coach emphasized getting out-of-bounds stops. We made a good play and got the and-1 and it lifted our team.”
Tulsa had cut the lead to 59-54 with five minutes left and UCLA was missing some easy shots inside. But after that, Tony Parker made a shot inside and UCLA pulled away. Tulsa hadn’t faced a double-digit deficit in nearly two months. And UCLA won by 17 points.
Powell got in a few dunks, one late one was complete with a stare-down for playoff measure. There’s the playoff beard. And then there’s the playoff stare.
The Bruins were good but inconsistent this season and never built much momentum on the road until their impressive run through the Pac-12 Tournament. There were the Anderson and Adams one-game suspensions late in the season.
Adams scored a game-high 21 points. Anderson had just eight points and five turnovers (several of the traveling variety that he hasn’t been called for all season) but he also added six assists.
The Bruins allowed Tulsa to stay in the game through 35 minutes on Friday at Viejas Arena in what seemed like a home game for the Bruins. The pro-UCLA crowd was a given because of the 2 1/2-hour drive. Without traffic of course.
There was more traveling in this game than on the way to the game for UCLA. Anderson was called for traveling three times, twice in the first half and once early in the second half.
Anderson responded to his first turnover with a shot on the other end to give UCLA a 28-19 lead in the first half. But not long after, he was called for the turnover on the exact same thing, on a drive to the basket on the right side.
The second one drew raised arms, a chat with an official and his ire as he slapped his teammates’ hands in frustration.
Powell, who played at nearby Lincoln High School and learned how to play basketball here, received the loudest ovation in pregame introductions. He learned to dunk in San Diego and is happy to represent a city he doesn’t think gets enough credit for the basketball players it has produced.
“Being back home, it’s a great feeling,” Powell said. “I’m glad I’m back home competing for family and friends. I’m glad we got the win for this team.”
Powell never played a high school game here on the campus of San Diego State, as all those CIF championships were at Jenny Craig Pavilion. He helped Lincoln High win a state championship, too.
Everyone in the arena was waiting for that first Powell dunk. He obliged with several.
Powell sank a 3-pointer from the left wing, blew fake smoke from his fake guns and put them in his fake holsters. That was just his first dunk.
He surely was battling nerves as he missed 4 of 5 shots in the first half, but he shook that off nicely with that momentum-shifting play late in the game.
And now, UCLA will try to shake off Stephen F. Austin to get to the Sweet Sixteen.
Stephen F. Austin earned an arena of fans at Viejas with its 77-75 comeback victory over VCU. Desmond Hayman nailed a 3-pointer with five seconds left and was fouled. He made the free throw for the four-point play, sent it to overtime and the Lumbjerjacks won.
Hours before the game, Anderson and Parker were tweeting, and Anderson and Shabazz Muhammad exchanged tweets. Muhammad didn’t leave a good mark at UCLA, not the kind that Kevin Love did as a one-and-done player.
But that was another story.
This story had a little drama, some dunks and travels and in the end, a nice bow to giftwrap a 17-point win for UCLA in the NCAA Tournament.
A little drama never hurt.
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