It was considered the marquee match-up going into the game. It
turned out to be a non-factor. Freshman point guard Jordan Farmar
got his counterpart, Chris Hernandez, into foul trouble early and
limited his contribution throughout. But in the end, it
didn’t matter. “For them to beat us with Hernandez only
scoring five points is tough for us,” UCLA coach Ben Howland
said. Hernandez, a first-team Pac-10 selection last year, was
averaging 14.1 points per game heading into Thursday’s
contest. Though Hernandez has been suffering from the flu this
week, his limited 21 minutes was largely due to two early
first-half fouls. Just over two minutes into the second half, he
picked up his third foul when Farmar made a strong move to the
basket. Farmar, though, looked to downplay the match-up.
“It’s not about me or Hernandez,” Farmar said.
“It’s about UCLA and Stanford. I was just trying to
take him out of his rhythm and get him into foul trouble.”
Though he was successful in that endeavor, the Bruins were unable
to capitalize on the advantage. Farmar tallied just six points on
the night and his four assists were overshadowed by just as many
turnovers. And not entirely coincidental, he finished with four
fouls as well. Three of them came in the second half, as poor
execution on offense led to silly ensuing mistakes. “The last
one was out of frustration,” Farmar acknowledged of his last
foul. “I turned it over and tried to get it back. It was a
dumb foul. I have to be smart in those situations.”
NOT UNDER CONTROL: Even without its veteran floor general for
almost half the game, the Cardinal was able to dictate the pace of
the game. Though the Bruins had fallen behind in their last four
victories at home, they were forced into playing more of
Stanford’s style on Thursday. “We saw from film that
they like to push when they get down,” back-up point guard
Jason Haas said. “Tonight, we had the lead and the ability to
control the tempo.” Stanford’s ability to control the
flow of the game seemed as though it might be in danger,
particularly with Hernandez and Haas in foul trouble throughout.
Yet the Cardinal had already built its lead by the time both of its
point guards picked up a pair of fouls in the first half. From
there on out, it was a matter of protecting the lead, which is
something Stanford did much better than the Washington schools did
against UCLA two weeks ago. “Offensively, they controlled the
game,” Howland said. “They’re very, very patient.
We played a lot more defense than they did because they had the
ball a lot longer.” Besides possessing the ball longer on
offense, the Cardinal also prevented UCLA from effectively
executing its transition offense. The Bruins may have been running
down the court, but they were rushing themselves into shots and
mistakes. “Anytime you’re down, there’s a sense
of urgency,” said Stanford junior Dan Grunfield, who scored a
game-high 25 points. “At the end, you have to force
things.”