In a game with more storylines than one could believe, each
story ended the exact same way.
That is, with a 71-54 victory for the No. 11 UCLA men’s
basketball team (11-1, 1-0 Pac-10) in its conference opener against
Stanford (4-5, 0-1).
Prior to Thursday’s victory, UCLA had lost six straight to
the Cardinal, and eight straight to Stanford at Pauley Pavilion
dating back to 1997.
Prior to Thursday’s victory, sophomore guard Josh Shipp
had not played one minute of one game. He finished with 11 points
in 29 minutes.
Prior to Thursday’s victory, the team had been forced to
cope with some critical injuries all season. Thursday revealed a
couple more, including a shoulder tear suffered by Cedric Bozeman
in Tuesday’s practice and a sprained ankle suffered by Jordan
Farmar during the game.
In the end, however, the result is really all that seemed to
matter.
“That was a great victory for our team,” coach Ben
Howland said.
He’s not kidding. UCLA came out with incredible intensity
from the opening tip-off for the second straight game, using
stifling defense and a very effective double-team on
Stanford’s leading scorer Matt Haryasz to open the game on an
18-1 run. Stanford missed its first 12 shots from the field, and
didn’t make a field goal for nearly nine minutes.
“I thought it was the best team defense we’ve
played,” Howland said.
UCLA forced 10 Stanford turnovers in the first half, held the
Cardinal to 20 percent shooting, and entered halftime with a 38-19
lead.
“Overall, this was a pretty good defensive game against a
good team,” said Arron Afflalo, who scored 18 of his
game-high 23 points in the first half.
Howland singled out the defensive intensity of Afflalo and
Farmar, who collectively shut down star Stanford guards Chris
Hernandez and Matt Grunfeld to key UCLA’s early run.
The way the Bruins came out, there was little doubt about the
final outcome after the first 10 minutes. Stanford, who has also
lost to UC Irvine and UC Davis this season, never got closer than
13 points the rest of the game.
The feel-good story of the game was undoubtedly the performance
of Shipp, who played for the first time this season after
undergoing right hip surgery on Sept. 28. Shipp, who started in
place of the injured Bozeman, scored UCLA’s first three
points of the game after getting fouled on a fast-break lay-up and
converting the free throw within the game’s first 20
seconds.
“It felt good to finally be back out there,” Shipp
said. “I didn’t want to rush anything. I just wanted to
play in the flow of the game and I’m just glad we got the
“˜W.'”
Shipp finished with 11 points and three rebounds in 29 minutes,
including 2-for-4 shooting from 3-point range.
“He was just spectacular tonight,” Howland said of
Shipp. “To be able to show up having not played a game for
this long with that hip injury and to perform the way he did is
just miraculous.”
And for the Bruins to handily dispose of Stanford, a team that
has given them so many problems in the recent past, seems
miraculous as well, especially considering the circumstances.
Bozeman, who had started every game this season, was in street
clothes. He was joined on the end of the bench by senior centers
Ryan Hollins (groin) and Michael Fey (ankle).
Though Farmar played a critical role early in the game, he
rolled his ankle early in the second half and didn’t play for
the game’s final 17 minutes. His status for Saturday’s
game about Cal will be determined Friday.
At some points in the second half, UCLA had four freshmen on the
floor. An upperclassman didn’t set foot on the floor for the
Bruins until sixth-year senior Janou Rubin checked in with 1:28
remaining.
“That’s a good sign,” Afflalo said.
“We’re that young and we play that hard. That just
means we’re passionate about the game and there’s
better things to come, now and in the future.”
Freshman forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute once again led the
Bruins in rebounding, finishing with 12 points and 12 rebounds in
32 minutes.