Monday, January 9, 2017

No. 4 UCLA prunes Stanford 89-75

from UCLA Athletics

jan 08, 2017 | ucla men's basketball page | ARTICLE LINK


LOS ANGELES – No. 4 UCLA improved to 16-1 with an 89-75 victory over Stanford in front of a sellout crowd of 13,659 in Pauley Pavilion on Sunday evening.
 
Freshman guard Lonzo Ball led the Bruins with 21 points and added eight assists and six rebounds, and freshman forward TJ Leaf recorded his eighth double-double of the year with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
 
UCLA (16-1, 3-1 Pac-12) was dominant early, maintaining a double-digit lead for the final 14 minutes of the first half. The Bruins used a 10-2 run to turn a 22-11 lead into a 32-13 advantage with 7:24 remaining. UCLA, which secured its 10th consecutive home victory, led by as many as 20 before going into halftime with a 48-30 advantage against Stanford (8-8, 0-4)
 
Ball scored 15 of his team-leading 21 points in the first half, connecting on 6 of 8 shots from the field. Bryce Alford had 11 of his 17 points in the first half, including a trio of three-pointers.
 
The Bruins increased their lead to 23 points early in the second half on a three-point basket from Alford, but Stanford clawed its way back into the game with a 16-4 run to close to within 11 points – 59-48 – with 13:38 to play.
 
UCLA used back-to-back three-pointers by Aaron Holiday and Ball to increase their advantage to 17 points (67-50) with 12:38 to play. The Bruins kept the visiting Cardinal at bay for the remainder of the game.

Steve Alford, Lonzo Ball Press Conference | Bryce Alford, TJ Leaf Press Conference
 
"We had some growth," UCLA head coach Steve Alford said. "It's like I told them in the locker room, we are 16-1, and you can see an awful lot of growth ahead of us. We still have some things to work on and get better and that's a positive. If we were 16-1 and can't do things any better, we can plateau out. I still think the ceiling for this team is very high, and that's exciting."
 
Four Bruins scored in double-figures, led by Ball's 21. Alford added 17 points and was 4-of-5 from three-point range. Leaf added six assists to his 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Isaac Hamilton scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds.
 
Michael Humphrey led Stanford with career-high totals of 27 points and 14 rebounds. He scored 18 of his 27 points in the second half. Robert Cartwright also recorded career-highs in points (18) and assists (nine).
 
UCLA (16-1, 3-1) will next travel to Colorado (10-6, 0-3) to take on the Buffaloes on Thursday, Jan. 12. Game time at the Coors Events Center in Boulder, Colo, is 8 p.m. PT (9 p.m. MT). UCLA's game will be nationally televised by FS1.

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