Reeves Nelson and the Bruins fell 85-74 to the Wildcats on Thursday.
Correction: An earlier version of this story did not contain a dateline.
TUCSON, Ariz. “”mdash; The Bruins and the Wildcats slugged it out in the desert for 23 minutes Thursday night, trading punches in a heavyweight fight for second place in the Pac-10.
Metaphorically speaking, that is.
Then junior guard Lazeric Jones threw an actual elbow after the whistle at the face of Arizona’s junior guard Kyle Fogg early in the second half.
And that was the knockout punch in the UCLA men’s basketball team’s 85-74 loss to Arizona.
“Obviously a key juncture,” coach Ben Howland said. “We have to have better mental toughness. … That was a bad momentum shift for us.”
Fogg calmly sank four free throws ““ the reward for a personal and subsequent technical foul on Jones ““ stretching the Wildcat lead to 11.
And though the Bruins tried to punch back, UCLA found itself on the ropes again minutes later, staggering behind another 6-0 Arizona run that was punctuated by a tomahawk jam ““ courtesy of Derrick Williams – that brought the capacity crowd at the McKale Center to its feet and gave the ‘Cats a 16-point lead.
Now UCLA has a day to lick its wounds.
“(For) me offensively and defensively, it was a very terrible game,” said Jones, who finished the game scoreless, shooting 0-7. “As one of the leaders, I have to fight through adversity.”
UCLA (13-7, 5-3 Pac-10) tried to fight, and cut the lead to as little as eight with 6:11 to go, but down the stretch Arizona (17-4, 6-2) refused to cave and stayed perfect on its home floor.
Any flickering hope of a comeback fizzled when sophomore forward Reeves Nelson drew his fifth foul on a charge with just under three minutes to play.
Nelson led the team with 24 points and pulled down 10 rebounds but, like the rest of his team, he didn’t have an answer for Williams.
The sophomore forward led the Wildcats with 22 points, but more impressive was the way he amassed them.
The projected NBA lottery pick got to the free throw line 10 times, hit two 3-pointers when freshman Josh Smith and redshirt freshman Anthony Stover were playing off him, and exploded past the big men anytime they tried to face him up.
“It’s really hard,” Smith said of defending Williams. “I’m basically guarding a three-man in the (NBA). With me being a true center, I just had to do what I could do, and stuff happens.”
Williams’ 22 points, combined with 17 from sophomore guard Lamont Jones and 14 from Fogg, helped the Wildcats dish out a balanced, up-tempo attack.
Fogg, who torched the Bruins in two regular season meetings in 2009, was held scoreless in the first half, but found his way to the charity stripe 14 times in the second. He finished the game 12-of-14 from the line, none more important than the four in a row he nailed after getting fouled by Jones.
Jones said he apologized and shook hands with Fogg during the game.
“I’m just an aggressive player,” Jones said. “He’s falling on me and I’m trying to get him off me.”
The technical was just one of a number of calls that players said they were frustrated by on Thursday. Junior guard Malcolm Lee admitted that the team was mentally shaken by the number of calls against them and the fact that shots just weren’t falling.
UCLA was only 2-for-15 from beyond the arc. Conversely, Arizona was 6-of-10 from 3-point range and shot 52 percent for the game.
“Anytime you go down by 16 or 18 points to a good team like Arizona, it’s going to be hard to come back, especially when they’re at home,” Nelson said.
Now UCLA has only a day and a half to regroup for a matchup with Arizona State on Saturday after failing in one of its last opportunities to nab a signature win.
Lee said the team certainly can’t afford to leave the state of Arizona 0-2 and must now focus on its Saturday contest.
“This game was real big,” Lee said. “And although this game was big ““ this game’s over.”