Friday, January 13, 2017

Alford Drops 37 Points in UCLA's Win at Colorado 104-89

from UCLA Athletics 

jan 12, 2017 | ucla men's basketball page | post LINK

BOULDER, Colo. – Bryce Alford scored a career-high 37 points, connecting on a school record-tying nine 3-pointers, to lead No. 4 UCLA past Colorado, 104-89, in a Pac-12 game at the Coors Events Center on Thursday night.
 
Alford made 11 of 18 total shots and 9 of 14 three-point attempts as UCLA (17-1, 4-1 Pac-12) snapped Colorado's eight-game home winning streak. Alford, who also made nine three-pointers against SMU in the NCAA Tournament as a sophomore, tied a mark originally set by Jason Kapono in 2003.
 
Isaac Hamilton had 20 points and Aaron Holiday finished with 14 as the Bruins recorded a 15-point win at Colorado to improve to 4-1 in league play.

"Our guys really responded well," UCLA head coach Steve Alford said. "Offensively, we were very efficient like we have been all year. Defensively, we got the stops, especially to begin the second half and to push the six-point lead to 11 or 12, and then we just maintained it."

UCLA set the school record for most made three-pointers in a game (19), eclipsing a mark that was set in UCLA's season-opening win against Pacific on Nov. 11, when the Bruins made 18 three-pointers. The Bruins' previous road record for most made threes in a game was 17, set in a loss at Arizona on Jan. 17, 2002.
 
Alford made 2 of 4 three-point attempts in the first half before catching fire after halftime. The senior guard from Albuquerque, N.M., scored 25 of his career-high 37 points in the second half, making 7 of 10 three-point attempts after the intermission.
 
Alford's 37-point performance marked the most points scored by a Bruin in a game since Dijon Thompson netted 39 points in UCLA's 95-76 win over Arizona State on Feb. 10, 2005, in Pauley Pavilion.
 
No UCLA player had scored as many as 37 points in a road or neutral site game since Kapono registered 44 points in the team's 98-83 win at Washington State on Jan. 4, 2003. That was the game in which Kapono had nine three-pointers (on 10 attempts).
 
Freshmen TJ Leaf (12 points) and Lonzo Ball (11 points) rounded out UCLA's list of five double-figure scorers. Leaf, who picked up two fouls in the game's first four minutes, has scored at least 10 points in each of the team's 18 games.
 
UCLA led by as many as 21 points with 10:25 to play in the second half and never saw its cushion fall to any fewer than 13 points.
 
The Bruins led by as many as eight points in the first half, pushing its margin to 51-43 after a dunk from freshman Ike Anigbogu with 1:16 left before intermission.
 
The first half featured four ties and four lead changes within the first 11 minutes and 30 seconds before a three-pointer from Alford gave UCLA a 26-23 advantage. From that point, the Bruins never trailed. UCLA owned a 51-45 margin by halftime.
 
UCLA handed Colorado its third home loss in its last 27 games on Thursday night, playing before a crowd of 8,755. The Bruins secured their first win at Colorado since a 69-56 victory over the Buffaloes on Jan. 16, 2014. UCLA and Colorado only met in the Bruins' Pauley Pavilion last season.
 
The Bruins will return to action at Utah (12-4, 3-1) at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday afternoon. Game time is 3 p.m. PT (4 p.m. MT). UCLA's game will be televised on Pac-12 Network.

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