Apparently, members of the UCLA men’s basketball team aren’t too fond of mornings.
Feeling the effects of an early 10 a.m. start time designed to accommodate a nationwide audience on TV, the Bruins came out flat and never recovered, losing 77-63 to Arizona at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday.
Less than two days after registering the team’s best first-half shooting percentage in more than a decade, the Bruins shot a sluggish 20.8 percent in the first half and missed their seven 3-point attempts.
UCLA women’s gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field introduced her 2010 squad on the court at halftime, and they seemed to have more bounce in their step.
When asked if the Bruins were ready to play, sophomore guard Malcolm Lee gave a subtle answer.
“Nope,” he said, before pausing. “We were physically ready, but our mindset wasn’t. It was early in the morning.”
Lee and senior guard Michael Roll each scored 15 points for UCLA (6-8, 1-1 Pac-10), but that was after the duo combined to miss their first 10 shots from the field. Arizona, meanwhile, opened up a 17-point lead late in the first half and was never in jeopardy of losing it.
The Bruins finally woke up and shot 60 percent in the second half, making three times as many field goals (15) than they had in the opening half. UCLA trailed by as many as 20 and cut the deficit to 11 with more than three minutes left, but by then it was far too late. The 8,681 in attendance at Pauley began to clear out as chants of “U of A” resonated throughout the venue.
“We had a couple chances there to get stops,” coach Ben Howland said. “(Arizona) made big shots when we were making our run coming back.”
UCLA, at least early, looked nothing like the team that shot 83.3 percent in the first half of Thursday’s thrilling 72-70 victory over visiting Arizona State. Before a student section that seemed both uninvolved and disinterested on Saturday, the Bruins trailed by 15 at the break after missing 19 of their first 24 shots.
“For our young players, it’s obviously a tough turnaround,” Howland said. “But (Arizona) had the same thing. They were playing at 10 a.m. We’ve got to be tougher mentally.”
A perfect example came late in the first half when Arizona guard Kyle Fogg, who led the Wildcats with a career-high 25 points, missed the front-end of a one-and-one. A trio of Bruins was in favorable defensive position, but each failed to grab the loose ball, resulting in one of the Wildcats’ 10 first-half offensive rebounds. UCLA allowed just two in the second half but gave up 12 second-chance points.
“They are really athletic and did a good job of going to get (the ball),” Howland said. “We didn’t do a good job of blocking out. We’re not a great rebounding team. Everybody on our team has to be involved with every rebound situation for us to win.”
Forwards Jamelle Horne and Derrick Williams added 17 and 16, respectively, for the Wildcats (7-7, 1-1), who looked determined to bounce back from their six-point loss to USC on Thursday.
“We are all doing a lot better with rebounding,” Arizona first-year coach Sean Miller said. “It’s not just one person, but definitely a team effort.”
Howland attributed the Bruins’ offensive woes to poor shot selection.
“We took so many rushed shots in the first couple of minutes,” he said. “Everybody was rushed.”
“We can’t come out slow,” Roll said. “We only scored 20 points in the first half. We took some bad shots.”
This wasn’t UCLA’s first game with an early start time. In the last game of the 76 Classic tournament against Long Beach State in Anaheim on Nov. 29, the Bruins’ largest deficit was 17. That game tipped off 30 minutes before noon.
UCLA clearly needed energy on Saturday, perhaps some coffee.
“Maybe getting up at 6 a.m.,” Lee said. “Getting up, getting loose and pumped.”