TUCSON, Ariz. “”mdash; UCLA used to be able to blow big leads and still find a way to leave arenas unscathed.
The Bruins used to have the firepower to get up after being knocked to the floor. Coach Ben Howland had the players that could withstand rallies and brush off when the dust settled.
UCLA could not get away with old tricks Thursday night, falling to Arizona, 78-73, after blowing a seemingly safe 14-point lead.
“We still had a chance there in the last three minutes of the game,” Howland said. “We were right there.”
Arizona stormed back furiously, methodically chipping away at UCLA’s 14-point lead. The Bruins didn’t help themselves defensively, allowing 49 points and 64 percent shooting in the second half.
Arizona guard Kyle Fogg was the main culprit. He scored 19 of his career-high 26 points in the second period and was 7-for-10 from beyond the arc.
“Zone buster,” sophomore guard Malcolm Lee said. “He just knocks down open shots.”
It was the second time this season that Fogg, a native of nearby Yorba Linda, posted a career-high against the Bruins.
“Fogg loves to play against us, obviously,” Howland said.
“We did a poor job of locating him in the zone in the second half and not figuring out that the guy is hot.
“I’ll watch the film, but he killed us.”
Senior forward Nikola Dragovic’s intentional foul on Arizona’s Derrick Williams with 14 seconds left and the Bruins down by just two was also killer.
No one, not even Howland, was sure of what happened on the play. Williams knocked down two free throws before the Wildcats (15-14, 9-8 Pac-10) got another possession. Arizona’s Nic Wise sank two more free throws to seal it.
“I don’t know what the deal was with the intentional foul,” Howland said. “I have no idea what that was.”
UCLA (13-16, 8-9) held a 10-point advantage at halftime behind 11 points from both Lee and redshirt senior guard Michael Roll, who eventually finished with a team-high 21.
But the Bruins made only a third of their second-half shots (10-for-30). Lee, who had been aggressive on the offensive end, disappeared ““ both literally and figuratively. Lee battled cramps just as he did for much of the early part of the season. He scored just two points in the second half.
“That really hurt us because when he came back in, the momentum had changed,” Howland said. “I’m asking him to do a superman feat here.”
“It just hit me out of nowhere,” Lee said. “I didn’t get any warnings or anything ““ it just hit me.”
The cramps hit, and UCLA was unable to bounce back.