The way Arron Afflalo saw it, UCLA was in trouble.
Buoyed by a string of easy buckets and a frenzied Pauley
Pavilion crowd, the Bruins had stormed to a one-point halftime lead
over No. 12 Arizona, but Afflalo knew it should have been more.
“We were shooting the ball so well in the first half, and
they hadn’t really thrown a run at us,” the freshman
guard said. “To only be up one, I knew we were in for it in
the second half.”
Even Afflalo, however, was stunned by how swiftly the Arizona
run came. The Wildcats, down five early in the second half,
ratcheted up their defensive intensity and reeled off 19 straight
points, propelling them to a comfortable 83-73 victory
Saturday.
The loss means that UCLA (13-8, 7-6 Pac-10), which slipped to
fourth place in the conference standings, will need a strong finish
over its final six regular season games to keep its NCAA Tournament
hopes alive. A victory over the first-place Wildcats (21-4, 11-2)
would certainly have eased some of that pressure for the Bruins,
who have now lost to Arizona four consecutive times.
“We took a number of questionable shots in the second half
that just fueled their run and showed our inexperience,” UCLA
coach Ben Howland said. “In a game like this, it’s a
huge opportunity for us not to capitalize on,
unfortunately.”
And there was no doubt when the game started to slip out of
UCLA’s fingers. With 17:34 remaining and the Bruins clinging
to a 47-42 lead, Arizona coach Lute Olson called a time-out and
challenged his players to attack the basket and raise their level
of intensity.
They responded immediately. Senior Channing Frye tore down an
offensive rebound, made the put-back while absorbing a Michael Fey
foul, and converted the free throw for a 3-point play. Four more
free throws gave Arizona its first lead since late in the first
half, but the Wildcats were not done.
By the time Salim Stoudamire knifed through the bewildered Bruin
defense for a 3-point play, Arizona’s lead ballooned to 61-47
and UCLA’s hopes of springing the upset had fizzled.
“We were up five, then it seemed like we were down 20
instantly,” said freshman Jordan Farmar, who had a
career-high 27 points in the loss. “They didn’t miss
too many shots on that run. It felt like it was all coming down on
us.”
Howland called two time-outs and substituted liberally to try to
quell Arizona’s momentum, but the Bruins simply
couldn’t stop the bleeding.
UCLA missed nine consecutive shots during Arizona’s
blitzkrieg, and did not make a field goal for more than seven
minutes. The wide-open 3-pointers that fell in the first half when
the Bruins went 8-for-16 from behind the arc didn’t in the
second, as UCLA missed all but two of their 13 long-range
attempts.
Poor shot selection also hampered the Bruins, who repeatedly
settled for contested jump shots with more than half of the
35-second clock remaining.
“There’s no way we can let them go on a 19-0 run in
our home. No way,” said Afflalo, who watched most of the run
from the bench after Howland removed him from the game for taking
two quick shots early in the second half.
“When you’re sitting there watching it’s
tough. Honestly, I’m kind of hurting right now.”
All five Wildcat starters finished in double figures, led by
Stoudamire and sophomore forward Ivan Radenovic, who scored 22 and
19 points respectively. Though the 6-foot-10 Radenovic was a force
on the boards all day and drained a pair of crucial jumpers during
the run, it was his defense on UCLA’s Dijon Thompson that may
have had the most impact.
Radenovic’s length and quickness seemed to bother
Thompson, who finished with 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting two days
after erupting for a career-high 39 against Arizona State. The
Wildcats repeatedly ran two and three defenders at Thompson
whenever he touched the ball, making it difficult for him to
establish any rhythm.
“Every time I put the ball on the floor, they sent a
defender to run at me,” Thompson said.
Frye added, “It was nothing but defense that keyed the
run. I don’t think we would have got the shots we did if we
didn’t get the stops on the other end.”