In a season full of missed opportunities for the UCLA men’s basketball team, Dec. 29 marked the first of many to come.
In their Pac-12 opener at Maples Pavilion, the Bruins went nearly point-for-point with the Stanford Cardinal but couldn’t ever take a lead in the second half and lost, 60-59. The rematch takes place tonight inside the Los Angeles Sports Arena, and the run-up to the game has the memories of that bitter defeat fresh on the Bruins’ minds (13-10, 6-5 Pac-12).
“Just all the opportunities we had,” sophomore center Joshua Smith said. “We scored enough points to win, and at the end of the game it came down to defense. We play better defensively. Just two or three more stops, we would have won the game.”
In the final minute, UCLA had two chances to take the lead. The penultimate one was Jerime Anderson’s, who clanged a wide-open 3-pointer from the left wing.
“I thought I had a really clean shot at winning the game,” the senior guard said. “That really bothered me.”
Even for senior guard Lazeric Jones, who had a career night in scoring with 26 points, the taste of defeat soured his personal achievements.
“It’s been nagging at me for a while now,” Jones said with a smile. “I was just in class thinking about it.”
He had the ball in his hands with a chance to win the game but drove the lane for a short jumper and was blocked just before the buzzer sounded.
“Tyler Lamb was wide open,” Jones said. “I probably should have passed. If not passed, I should have took a jump shot instead of driving so deep.”
Stanford (16-7, 6-5) was able to escape that night, but UCLA thinks it has a better shot this time around. The deja vu portion of the Bruins’ schedule begins tonight, with every conference matchup from now until the end of the year being a rematch. That gives the Bruins a chance to avenge some of their crushing losses, such as the one to the Cardinal.
Still, the Bruins believe they’re a different team since the trip they took up to the Bay Area. They’ve successfully defended their home court, and they were finally able to put some of their crunch-time failures behind them and close out a win at Washington State on Saturday.
Most importantly, they still have hope in the lack of separation in the Pac-12 standings. Washington sits atop the leaderboard with a 9-2 conference record, but seventh-place UCLA sits only three games behind them.
The Cardinal, losers of four of its last five, are no exception to the inconsistency that has plagued Pac-12 teams this year.
“That’s everybody in the Pac-12,” Smith said. “Every other team (outside of Washington) is still trying to get up there.”
UCLA believes it has turned a corner and that has to do with the play of Smith. Back in his home state this weekend, Smith had 43 points over two games while simply dominating his opposition. Maybe more impressively, he played 48 minutes, his best two-game stretch this season.
“I feel like I can build on this and just keep playing the way I know how to play,” said UCLA’s 6-foot-10-inch center.
Smith scoring baskets will be crucial for the Bruins against Stanford, especially since redshirt sophomore forward Travis Wear, who missed the previous game with a high ankle sprain, is unlikely to play tonight.
If the Bruins have improved, they’ll get the friendly confines of the Sports Arena to show off their new product.
Five of UCLA’s last eight conference games are at home, where UCLA is 4-0.
“You can’t dwell on the past,” Jones said. “We still can make this happen with some good home wins. If we can hold down our home court, we can do something special.”