BERKELEY “”mdash; Overshadowed by his backcourt mate for much of the contest, Cal guard Brandon Smith stepped into the spotlight in a huge way.
The sophomore hit a 3-pointer from the corner to give the Bears an insurmountable four-point lead with 14 seconds left in overtime, helping Cal knock off UCLA 76-72 in a wild contest in front of a raucous crowd at Haas Pavilion.
While Smith had the big shot, the rest of the night belonged to Cal guard Jorge Gutierrez. The junior from Mexico scored 34 points, the most UCLA yielded to a single player all season.
“Gutierrez absolutely killed us down the stretch,” coach Ben Howland said. “He was great. He just kept attacking our bigs, attacking our hedges, attacking our plugs of screens. He was just driving, driving, driving.”
He went 11-of-12 from the free-throw line, most of which came late in the second half and into overtime. Not known as a jump shooter, Gutierrez scored mostly on aggressive drives to the basket and in transition.
UCLA only made it beyond regulation because of the heroics of Malcolm Lee, who hit a tying 3-pointer to beat the second-half buzzer. Lee’s off-balance shot hit the front rim, bounced lazily into the air, and dropped through after the horn had sounded.
“When I initially let it go, it felt good,” Lee said. “I knew it was going to have a chance because it was straight. Then when it hit the rim, the way it bounced, I was like ‘Oh, that’s about to bounce in.’”
Smith’s shot, meanwhile, was all net. The sophomore’s shot was the dagger in an overtime session that saw the teams trade leads most of the way. He was open because the Bruin defense had to collapse on Gutierrez, who had once more penetrated the teeth of the defense.
“He’s playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Lee said of Gutierrez. “(Cal coach Mike Montgomery) found out something that was working for them, and they exploited it all night.”
Lee, regarded as the team’s best perimeter defender, began the night guarding Cal freshman Allen Crabbe but switched to Gutierrez late in the game when it became apparent that it was the latter’s night.
Still, the Bruins were unable to solve the numerous on-ball screens that Cal set to spring its’ star.
Nor were they able to secure a key rebound late in the game. UCLA freshman Joshua Smith fouled out with 1:19 to go in overtime. Without Smith’s presence in the paint, the Bears were able to grab two offensive rebounds on the ensuing possession and eventually got a layup from Markhuri Sanders-Frison for a 71-70 lead.
They wouldn’t look back.
It was nearly an epic comeback for the Bruins, however.
Seventy-two hours after the Bruins made 3-pointers on their first two possessions against Stanford, they missed their first nine against the Bears.
Some weren’t close ““ Tyler Lamb didn’t even hit the rim on a wide-open attempt from the wing. A trey by Tyler Honeycutt with less than three minutes to go in the first half finally ended the drought.
“We really came out flat and that’s totally on me,” Howland said. “There’s no way that should be.”
UCLA trailed 29-18 at halftime, but came out with much more energy in the second. The Bruins even delved deep into their bag of tricks to scrap and scheme their way back into the game.
After cutting the deficit to 35-28 with under 16 minutes to go, Howland reached into 2009 and pulled out a 2-3 zone defense. It was the first time the Bruins had played zone all season.
They ran it for less than 10 Cal possessions, during which they continued to trim into the deficit.
Although Howland said the zone was only a temporary solution to helping Smith and Reeves Nelson avoid foul trouble, many of the players were in support of using it more often.
“It was good, it slowed them down,” Nelson said. “They had a good game plan coming in, and I think the zone threw them off a little bit.”
For the second time this season, the Bruins and Bears played an instant classic. Exactly one month after Nelson’s tip-in during the final seconds gave UCLA an 86-84 victory, the teams battled to a climactic overtime conclusion.
This time, the late-game heroics ““ in this case, Lee’s 3-pointer ““ weren’t enough to pull out a victory for the Bruins.
“We just all had confidence going into the overtime,” Lee said. “I guess they had that too. That’s why they won.”