SACRAMENTO — Just when everything seemed to be secure for UCLA, March Madness reared its ugly head.
Arron Afflalo and company made sure it didn’t get out of hand.
Afflalo made four critical free throws down the stretch to help UCLA fight off a furious rally from Indiana and emerge with a 54-49 victory over the Hoosiers.
“We’ve been in situations like that before,” junior center Lorenzo Mata said. “We just kept our composure and continued to fight and play hard.”
Considering the way Indiana had been shooting, combined with UCLA’s strong defense, a 46-33 lead with 5:31 left in the game appeared to be insurmountable. At that point in the game, Indiana was shooting a dismal 27.3 percent from the field (12-44).
But almost in an instant, fate changed for Indiana. Suddenly, the Hoosiers couldn’t miss.
Indiana’s Lance Stemler and Roderick Wilmont nailed three consecutive 3-pointers to put the Hoosiers right back in the game.
And after Indiana guard Earl Calloway made a layup after the Hoosiers got an offensive rebound off a missed free throw, the score was tied at 49 with exactly one minute left to play.
“They made a very quick and sharp run,” Afflalo said. “They banked in a shot and made some deep 3s. You just start thinking this is what March Madness is about. At that point in time, you have to become even more relaxed, more poised, and more focused and do what you have to do to win the game.”
While Indiana was lighting up the scoreboard, UCLA couldn’t buy a basket. The Bruins went the final 5:31 without a field goal.
But after Calloway’s layup, Afflalo, who had demanded the ball and made two free throws on the previous UCLA possession, repeated his effort, driving hard to the basket, getting fouled, and sinking two more free throws to give the Bruins the lead back.
“Smart play by a smart player,” coach Ben Howland said. “He wants the ball at crunch time.”
After Afflalo’s free throws, 38 seconds still remained and neither team had a timeout. That’s when yet another hero stepped up for the Bruins.
All season long, Howland has preached that even when sophomore forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute isn’t scoring, he does other things to help the team win that don’t show up on the stat sheet.
Whether it’s altering shots, boxing out, or diving for loose balls, Mbah a Moute’s value to the team extends beyond how many points he scores or how many rebounds he gets.
In Saturday’s game, Mbah a Moute’s biggest nonstatistical contribution was to serve as a distraction against Stemler as he tried to inbound the ball.
Mbah a Moute waved around frantically and twice knocked Stemler’s inbounds passes from the baseline out of bounds.
With Stemler inbounding from the side, Mbah a Moute blocked Stemler’s vision and forced a bad pass, which sophomore point guard Darren Collison collected.
After Collison was fouled and sank two free throws, the game was essentially over.
“Against ‘SC at their place, (Mbah a Moute) deflected a ball with five seconds and they didn’t get off a good shot,” Howland said. “This time we actually got the steal. … That was really the biggest play of the game.”
All of the second-half drama followed a first half that was far from pretty to watch. The opening 20 minutes of the game were all about defense and missed shots.
It didn’t matter whether or not the shots were from short range or long range, whether they were contested or wide-open ““ nothing was going through the net.
UCLA finished the half shooting 7-for-26 and Indiana was held to an abysmal 5-for-28 from the field by the Bruins (the teams combined to shoot 22.2 percent from the field).
“No, we didn’t have our best performance offensively in the second half, but we were up seven points,” Collison said. “Defense is what wins games.
“All that matters is the end of the game, not the end of the first half, or not how you played in the second half, but if you got a win or you got a loss.”
When UCLA takes on Pittsburgh in Sweet 16 action on Thursday at 6:40 p.m., it could be yet another defensive battle that the Bruins have become accustomed to over the past two seasons. For the Bruins, that might not be the worst thing in the world.
“I’ll take the ugliest game in the world if we continue to win,” Afflalo said.