SEATTLE “”mdash; When UCLA clinched the Pac-10 title on Thursday, the mood of the team could only be described as euphoric.
Just two days later, the Bruins received a major reality check.
No. 2 UCLA (26-4, 15-3 Pac-10) ended the regular season in disappointing fashion, falling to Washington (18-12, 8-10).
“They outplayed us in every aspect of the game,” junior guard Arron Afflalo said. “It’s embarrassing. I don’t know what we were resting on. I don’t know if it was because we won the Pac-10 championship, I don’t know what it was.”
Part of the reason for the result might have been the motivating factors behind each team. For the Huskies, Saturday’s game meant everything. A sold-out crowd was present on senior day in Washington’s last home game of the season. For a team that’s underachieved this season, the Huskies needed a marquee win against a top-10 team just to prove to themselves that they are still capable of making a run in the Pac-10 Tournament and possibly even make a desperate run into NCAA Tournament contention.
“If we play like we did tonight … shoot, they’re the No. 2 team in the nation,” Washington sophomore forward Jon Brockman said. “I have all the confidence in this team. Going to L.A. (for the Pac-10 Tournament), I’m packing for four or five days. We’re going to be there the whole time.”
For UCLA, the game clearly did not have as much meaning coming in. The Bruins had already won the conference title and the loss to Washington probably won’t affect their status as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, particularly if the Bruins can rebound with wins in the Pac-10 Tournament.
“They were laughing, giggling, dunking the ball ““ stuff you do when you ain’t focused,” Washington sophomore guard Justin Dentmon said. “We just told ourselves that we wouldn’t allow them to do that and that we would just come out and play. I think they (took us lightly).”
With a team that has prided itself on its focus and discipline throughout the season, there was simply no good explanation offered for the lackluster effort after the game.
“There’s no excuse to come in here on national television and not compete for 40 minutes,” Afflalo said.
The tone of the game was set right from the beginning as the Bruins got off to a lackluster start. UCLA didn’t score a point in the first six minutes of the first half, taking bad shots and turning the ball over multiple times. UCLA also did not score a point in the final six minutes of the half.
The Bruins’ 20 first-half points were their lowest output of the season.
“When you come into a tough environment and play a good team, you have to get off to a good start,” coach Ben Howland said. “If I knew (why we started off slow), I would have corrected it after 30 seconds. I expected us to come out and play really good today and we didn’t.”
Just like they’ve done many times this season, the Bruins stormed back into the game with a run in the second half. Sophomore guard Darren Collison (5 points, 2-15 field goals) couldn’t make anything for most of the day, but his 3-pointer with just under three minutes to go cut the Husky lead to one point.
But the Bruins could not complete the comeback, as the Huskies closed the game on a 9-0 run.
“In our losses, we’ve done that every time,” Afflalo said. “We’ve been in about maybe six games when we were down and maybe two of them we actually won. There was no need for us to get comfortable (when we cut the lead to one point).”
UCLA was without the services of sophomore Alfred Aboya, who injured his knee in the Washington State game on Thursday. Aboya’s loss proved to have a catastrophic effect on the team. Without Aboya, the Bruins’ second-leading rebounder in conference play, Brockman and Washington freshman center Spencer Hawes combined for 28 rebounds, and the Huskies outrebounded UCLA 44-29.
The dry spells on offense, combined with the Bruins’ inability to keep the Huskies off the boards ultimately spelled disaster.
While the loss doesn’t have too much bearing on the Bruins, it could serve as a wake-up call as the importance of the Pac-10 Tournament only increases now. UCLA has responded with convincing victories after all of their losses so far this season.
“We’re definitely going to come out and give a great effort our next game,” sophomore forward Josh Shipp said. “The team’s definitely feeling that pain, and we don’t want to feel that again.”