After coming back to take down Washington State on Wednesday, UCLA was ready to repeat the feat against Washington. The Bruins stumbled out of the gates, surged in the second half and seemingly had the Huskies on the ropes.
But when it came down to the wire Friday at Pauley Pavilion, youth was no match for experience. The UCLA men’s basketball team had set up a deficit that was too much to overcome, and Washington, the preseason Pac-10 favorite, pulled away late to win 74-63.
After the Huskies took a seven-point lead at the half, the margin quickly ballooned to 17 before the Bruins (9-5, 1-1 Pac-10) started chipping away, just as they had against the Cougars. But Washington (10-3, 2-0), a Sweet 16 team a year ago that returned most of its key players, quickly took the momentum away from UCLA.
“They are a very good team, and they are where they are at for a reason,” sophomore forward Reeves Nelson said. “They executed on both sides of the floor better than we did.”
Down six with less than five minutes to play, UCLA had its best shot to cut it to a one-possession game, but sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt’s 3-point attempt rimmed out. On the other end, Husky junior forward Darnell Gant put in a 3-point shot on his only attempt of the game, which all but killed the Bruins’ chances of a comeback.
“We missed a shot, they came back down and hit one, and we never got it past that point,” Honeycutt said.
Nelson keyed the Bruins’ second-half run with several big plays and finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds. But he alone couldn’t bring UCLA back into it.
“I just tried to take good shots for our team to help us back,” Nelson said. “They got up by about 15 on us, and I thought we did a good job of fighting back.”
The Bruins were once again plagued by mistakes characteristic of youth. They found themselves in foul trouble early when Honeycutt, freshman center Joshua Smith and junior guard Jerime Anderson each picked up two in the first half. Down to only nine scholarship players, coach Ben Howland even inserted non-scholarship junior guard Blake Arnet after junior guard Lazeric Jones briefly left with a finger injury.
Smith’s foul trouble proved to be costly. Washington senior forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning wreaked havoc in the paint with Smith either on the bench or conservatively playing defense. Bryan-Amaning finished with a game-high 21 points to go along with 10 rebounds and helped Washington outscore UCLA 42-26 in the paint.
Smith had a big dunk to bring UCLA to within four with 4 minutes 39 seconds to play, as close as it would get in the second half, but fouled out for the first time in his career shortly afterward. It was his eighth game of four or more fouls, and his first time fouling out.
“Foul trouble hurt us tonight,” Howland admitted. “We were lucky to get to halftime without someone having three (fouls).”
At times, it seemed like the only way UCLA could score was from the charity stripe. The Bruins shot 36 free throws but missed 11. Washington made the most of its limited opportunities and went 12-15 at the line.
“If you”˜re going to beat the team that was picked to win the conference, you have to make your foul shots,” Howland said. “You’ve got to shoot 80 percent, 85 percent.”
The loss to the Huskies capped off a tumultuous 2010 for UCLA, but after defeating Washington State 80-71 on Wednesday and notching a signature win over then-No. 16 Brigham Young on Dec. 18, the future appears brighter than it did a year ago for Bruin men’s basketball.
“I still think we’re one of the best teams in the Pac-10,” Honeycutt said.