PALO ALTO “”mdash; Ben Howland knew it would be like this.
When the UCLA men’s basketball coach met with the media on Tuesday, he said that the Bruins’ game against Stanford worried him. He pointed to the Cardinal’s trio of seniors ““ Mitch Johnson, Anthony Goods and Lawrence Hill ““ playing in their final homestand as one reason why.
And for the first eight minutes, when the Cardinal made 10 of their first 11 shots and sprinted out to a 14-point lead, it seemed as if a repeat of last week’s loss to Washington State was in order.
Not this time.
On Thursday night at Maples Pavilion, the No. 22 Bruins (21-7, 10-5 Pac-10) rediscovered their defense, outlasting the upset-minded Cardinal 76-71. With the win, the Bruins moved into a three-way tie for second place in the Pac-10 conference with Arizona State and California.
Senior forward Josh Shipp led the Bruins with a game-high 24 points, while fellow senior Alfred Aboya added 16 points.
Stanford had four players score in double figures, led by Goods (18) and junior Landry Fields (16).
After the game Howland was as eager and upbeat as he has been in weeks.
“There is so much adrenaline flowing when you have to come from behind like this on the road, and you have to give (Stanford) credit,” Howland said. “They came out and took it to us early in this game and I think our leadership, especially the veteran guys, we’ve been there before.”
At the start of the game, shades of last week’s dispiriting 82-81 loss at home to Washington State were present. A Bruin defense that allowed the Cougars to shoot 68 percent in the first half did not fare much better against the Cardinal, allowing Stanford to jump out to a 26-12 lead with 11:09 left in the first half.
“It was like a barrage,” Howland said. “Coming into this game, we talked about our need to play better defense and it was tough there. They made tough shots, but those guys are good players.”
Yet the percentages would even out as the Cardinal made just 5-of-17 shots in the rest of the first half en route to 38-37 halftime deficit for UCLA.
“We just kept playing hard (defense),” Shipp said. “They made some tough shots (and) we knew that wouldn’t last. We just had to keep playing our defense and just keep executing offensively to give us a chance to stay in the game.”
In the second half the Bruins played more of a complete game, scoring efficiently while clamping down on defense, limiting the Cardinal to just 42.9 percent shooting after intermission.
After building as much as an eight-point advantage at 69-61 with 4:34 left, the Bruins let the Cardinal back into the game as a free throw by Goods cut the lead to 72-70 with 41 seconds remaining.
On the Bruins’ next possession, Aboya was fouled with 14 seconds remaining and given the opportunity to make it a two-possession game with two made free throws.
He succeeded.
“I’m sitting there on the bench praying but I’m also very confident in Alfred,” Howland said. “He’s made a lot of big free throws for us during his career and I’m really, really happy and proud of him.”
It had been a long and difficult week for the Bruins, having to answer questions about the capabilities of this team. And finally, last night at Maples Pavilion, the Bruins were able to respond with their play rather than words.
“We really wanted to go out there and play with a lot of pride,” senior Darren Collison said. “We know our talent is there; it’s just a matter of going out there and playing hard. If we play hard, 99.9 percent we’re going to win the game. (When) we have a let down, teams are good enough in the Pac-10 to actually beat us.”