TUCSON, Ariz. “”mdash; Only after the game was the pressure
finally taken off UCLA.
But by then, the Bruins were so dazed they couldn’t quite
comprehend what had just transpired.
They actually spoke of playing hard, of playing well, even after
a 24-point loss to rival Arizona. And the Bruins did ““ when
they got the ball past half-court.
It took just 30 seconds for Arizona to prove its superiority,
slapping on the press after UCLA had whittled down a 16-point
deficit to 1, with 1:31 remaining in the first half. This led to
four Bruin turnovers and 10 unanswered points that gave the
Wildcats an 11-point halftime lead.
“When we put another run on them, they didn’t let
down all the way, but you could see in their eyes that they
didn’t think they had a chance of coming back,” said
Arizona forward Andre Iguodala, who started the run with two
successful free throws.
Wildcat guard Chris Rodgers, who started in place of a hobbled
Hassan Adams, stole the inbound pass following a media timeout and
went in for a layup.
He then proceeded to connect on three-pointers, following a
Trevor Ariza offensive foul and a Cedric Bozeman backcourt
violation.
“That was crazy,” said Ariza, who had six turnovers.
“It hurt because we had to come back from behind
again.”
“They weren’t really ready for (the press),”
said Rodgers, who finished with a career-high four three-pointers.
“I don’t think they understood how quick our team
was.”
UCLA coach Ben Howland understood.
“(The Wildcats) are quicker. They’re faster,”
he said. “We were right there with them, and then
boom.”
He just couldn’t do anything but watch his Bruins go
kablooey in the face of a relentless, in-your-face aggressive
defense. It didn’t help that the players were confused.
“We had the wrong personnel in at the time, and that led
to the turnovers,” said Bozeman, who committed a game-high
seven turnovers. “Sometimes Trevor was taking it out, and he
wasn’t supposed to. There were just some miscues, and
(Arizona) jumped on that.”
The Bruins committed 28 turnovers in all, and the Wildcats
scored 50 points off of them. Otherwise, UCLA was fine, shooting 66
percent from the floor.
But a lot of the time, the Bruins were busy bumbling around with
the ball once the pressure came from the rabid Wildcats. UCLA did
cut the second-half deficit to seven points, but while it seemed so
close to coming back, the reality was that it was kept at an
arm’s length the entire way.
“UCLA was shaken by the press, and it totally destroyed
them,” Arizona coach Lute Olson said.