TUCSON, Ariz. “”mdash; As Jerime Anderson’s potential game-tying shot glanced off the backside of the rim and fell to the floor, so did the heads of everyone on the UCLA bench.
Another second-half lead in a conference road game, another disappointing loss, this time to Arizona on Saturday at McKale Center 65-63.
UCLA held a six-point lead with just over 10 minutes to play but failed to defend Arizona guard Kyle Fogg, who finished with a game-high 20 points, when it mattered most.
It’s a familiar scenario for the Bruins who finished 3-6 in conference road games this season, tied for their second-worst road performance in coach Ben Howland’s tenure.
“It’s really disappointing to lose this game after playing well enough to win,” said Howland, who uttered similar lines in road losses to Oregon and Washington when his team gave up double-digit, second-half leads.
UCLA weathered the storm in one of the toughest places to play in the conference for roughly 30 minutes but after surrendering the lead, the Bruins would never retake it.
When prompted for a reason why they haven’t been able to finish off close games on the road, each person had a different answer.
Howland talked of poor free throw shooting and not getting calls while others mentioned the lack of a leader or go-to scorer. Sophomore guard Tyler Lamb had no such explanation.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I really don’t know. I have turnovers at the end of the game and I have to cut down on that. That doesn’t help our team.”
Trailing by four with 29 seconds left, UCLA (16-13, 9-7) forced Arizona (21-9, 12-5) to burn a timeout before forcing a turnover on the inbound pass but just as quickly as the Bruins had the ball back, Lamb dribbled it off his foot and out of bounds on the ensuing possession.
Although Arizona’s Solomon Hill would go on to miss both of his free throws, Howland called Lamb’s turnover “big.”
Playing on Arizona’s senior day, only one of UCLA’s senior guards looked like a senior as Anderson led his team in scoring with 20 points. Fellow senior guard Lazeric Jones finished with just two after going for 20 himself two nights earlier. Fogg was draped all over Jones for the majority of the contest.
“I thought (Fogg) got him a little bit out of his rhythm and sometimes you start pressing rather than being patient and letting it come,” Howland said. “As a primary scorer, he’s got to learn how to do that better.”
Jones is the team’s only captain but redshirt sophomore Travis Wear said Jones’ struggles were no excuse for faltering in crunch time.
“Even if some players have bad games, it shouldn’t affect everyone,” Wear said. “We’re a team and we have to pick each other up.”
Foul trouble again limited center Joshua Smith who scored nine points in 14 limited minutes. Smith picked up three fouls in the first half and was playing with four for the majority of the second half.
Howland said that the sophomore’s conditioning continues to be a problem.
“It’s hard for him to get rhythm when he’s only playing that many minutes,” Howland said. “You could see he got tired out there tonight.”
Regardless of where the blame lies, UCLA’s road woes are over for this season as the Bruins’ two remaining conference games come next week at the Sports Arena where they will host to Washington State on Thursday and Washington on Saturday.