BERKELEY “”mdash; All that was left for the UCLA men’s basketball team after so much disappointment was to make a vow that the Pac-10 schedule would be a new season. Coming back from 12 points down to beat one of the conference’s key title contenders on their own court was certainly a step toward proving that declaration.
The Bruins engineered a dramatic overtime victory against Cal on Wednesday night in front of more than 10,000 fans at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley.
“This is a huge win for us,” coach Ben Howland said. “Winning … in a true road game is always tough and always big.”
Senior guard Michael Roll’s 15-foot jump shot with three seconds left in the extra period capped off a masterful shooting performance by the Bruins and gave the team the 76-75 win.
But though the paint is barely dry on the team’s first meaningful victory of the season, the Bruins know if they don’t capitalize on this newfound momentum, it might be all for naught.
“We’ve got to win on Saturday for this to be good,” Roll said after the game.
UCLA (7-8, 2-1 Pac-10) will cross the Bay to visit Stanford (7-7, 1-1) for an afternoon affair to close out the road trip.
Predicted to place near the bottom of the conference at the beginning of the season, the Cardinal has shown an urgency to dispel those estimates. Stanford notched an important victory of its own on Wednesday, defeating surging USC 54-53 in Maples Pavilion, and still holds the distinction of being the only team to stay even through regulation with undefeated No. 3 Kentucky.
Despite those performances, that same Cardinal team recently lost by 26 to Cal and dropped early season games to the likes of San Diego and Oral Roberts.
If the Bruins hope to continue their five-game winning streak against Stanford, they will have to contain senior forward Landry Fields. The 6-foot-7-inch Fields averages 22.5 points and 9 rebounds per game, which both rank second in the Pac-10.
Against the Bears, Howland stuck to a zone for much of the game, which seemed to go a long way in limiting the effectiveness of a California team having an abnormally bad shooting night. It is still up in the air whether he will play zone against Stanford, but it seems that even on a successful night, Howland was hesitant to remain in the defensive pattern that he is almost famous for avoiding.
“The zone helps us in one respect and hurts us in another,” Howland said. “I tell you what, I have a hard time when we get scored on in zone and keep staying with it.”
Where the zone has the potential to harm the Bruins the most is on the defensive glass, but freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt’s introduction into the starting lineup gave tremendous help in disarming that liability. In 29 minutes of play ““ his season high ““ Honeycutt managed 10 rebounds and could often be seen directly under the hoop ripping away at the ball.
With all of this season’s challenges, Howland has preached the necessity of effort and praised his team for giving a valiant one.
“You know what, we showed some resiliency,” he said. “We showed some toughness not to give in.”
Finally given the chance to build off such a strong finish, team captain Roll does not want to waste the opportunity to ride this wave.
“We can’t split (the weekend series),” Roll said. “We’ve just got to keep winning as many games as possible.”
With reports by Blair Angulo and Andrew Howard, Bruin Sports senior staff.